Crain´s Cleveland Business
BRIAN LANE AND MICHAEL J. ALKIRE
January 23, 2022
Brian Lane and Michael Alkire
As the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the nation, governments and the private sector tore through their stockpiles of personal protective equipment (PPE) and other resources.
Several supply chain issues quickly emerged, including the lack of visibility into supply sources, a fragmented approach to ordering and fulfillment, and an over-reliance on overseas manufacturing.
While we have made progress in managing aspects of the pandemic, supply chain disruptions, including raw materials, manufacturing, shipping, distribution and “last-mile” delivery, remain in a system not designed for a pandemic’s demands.
While we have made progress in managing aspects of the pandemic, supply chain disruptions … remain in a system not designed for a pandemic’s demands.
With a few targeted strategies, it is possible to reverse these disruptions.
For our part, Premier, a health care improvement company uniting 4,400 U.S. hospitals and health systems and partner of the Northeast Ohio-based CHAMPS Group Purchasing, has been concerned about supply chain risk management for years, and we’ve built forward-thinking capabilities to help protect against disruption.
To strengthen the supply chain, Premier and CHAMPS are calling for the implementation of key national priorities to respond to surge demand for essential medical supplies and drugs.
We need to take a broader approach to create an end-to-end supply chain that is transparent, diverse and reliable.
Beyond quantities, we must also ensure the U.S. has established, contractual relationships that include contingency plans to ramp up production upon identification of future need.
Specifically, we must address the following.
In March 2020, Premier pioneered a syndicated model to ensure a robust and resilient supply chain for essential medical products.
The program provides a vehicle through which Premier and its members pool capital to invest in domestic manufacturers that can supply shortage products, providing up-front liquidity needed for production capacity expansion and plant modernization, as well as long-term buying commitments to provide incentive for innovation.
This ensures that providers have a cost-effective, domestic alternative for their patient care needs.
Here in Northeast Ohio, CHAMPS Group Purchasing partnered with JobsOhio to implement agreements with PPE and related product suppliers as part of our commitment to supporting local, diverse and small business domestic suppliers to progress the region’s economy.
In March 2020, Premier pioneered a syndicated model to ensure a robust and resilient supply chain for essential medical products.
1.The need for an innovative global sourcing strategy:
Past situations such as H1N1, Ebola and Hurricane Maria highlighted vulnerabilities associated with overreliance on single countries for medical supplies and drugs.
In response several organizations (including ours) have been diversifying the production of PPE, spreading business to multiple countries and regions to mitigate the ongoing risks of product shortages.
As part of this, we also must ensure providers have a voice in determining what should be included in the strategic national stockpile of equipment.
2.Tech-enabling the supply chain:
Until recently, hospitals have been on their own in translating local COVID-19 surges into immediately meaningful information regarding capacity and supplies.
Now, providers are using technology to be better informed about how rapidly cases are spreading and about their required supplies at any given point.
This new technology is leveraging real-time surveillance capabilities — providing early warnings, forecasting surges, and helping organizations plan coordinated responses where they’re needed most.
Moreover, the federal government needs technology that will provide visibility into what supplies are in stockpiles, distribution and hospital inventories during national emergencies.
This will enable allocation to places in need and reduce hoarding and the illicit market, problems that challenged America for the first nine months of the pandemic.
When health care providers can predict COVID-19 hospitalizations and have confidence in the supply sufficiency of critical products, this creates a positive ripple effect — relieving strain on supply chains, ensuring more responsive care across communities, and helping keep businesses and schools open and running.
Even as COVID-19 exposed supply chain flaws and transformed the health care landscape, together we continue to show up and level up to address the challenges because of the pandemic and drive health care innovation for the future.
We must rally together to ensure access to the supplies, data, analytics and intelligence needed to survive and thrive in a challenging environment.
We must rally together to ensure access to the supplies, data, analytics and intelligence needed to survive and thrive in a challenging environment.
About the authors:
BRIAN LANE AND MICHAEL J. ALKIRE
Lane is president and CEO of The Center for Health Affairs and CHAMPS Healthcare.
Alkire is president and CEO of Premier Inc.
Originally published at https://www.crainscleveland.com on January 21, 2022.
