Knowledge Center

This white paper explores the importance of balancing health care supply sourcing through both domestic and international suppliers, the benefits and challenges of building new, domestic health care supply chains, and why community sourcing and warehousing can benefit hospitals, their staff and communities, and the delivery of high-quality patient care.

Supply chain teams across the U.S. continue to face supply shortages. One of the lessons learned during COVID-19 was the need to diversify and shorten the end-to-end supply chain.

Consider how direct sourcing can enable access to PPE and the leading practices of building supply chain diversity and resiliency for the future in this Banner Health case study.

Though the health care industry is continuing to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, many industry leaders are also looking to build a more resilient supply chain by asking, “What could we have done differently?”, and “How should we prepare for future pandemics and other crises?”

As health care emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain resiliency is a priority. One primary consideration has been how to develop inventory reserves to mitigate the risk of severe product shortages.

COVID-19 has exposed the fragile nature of the health care supply chain, but it’s not the first public health crisis to do so. Michael Schiller, AHRMM's Senior Director of Supply Chain, and Richard Bagley, Senior Vice President, Chief Supply Chain Officer, Penn State Health, led the discussion on lessons learned and ways we should rethink supply chain strategies for the future.

AHRMM's Policies and Procedures Manual for the Health Care Supply Chain, 2nd Edition contains over 160 new and revised health care supply chain policies and procedures to reflect current leading practices needed to run a successful supply chain department in any health care organization.

AHRMM's recommendations help to avoid the inefficiencies, unnecessary product demand, cost and operational management associated with hospitals establishing their own surge inventories, or state mandates for hospitals to maintain a specified number of days of on-hand inventory of critical products and supplies.

Important updates for health care supply chain on the progress and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

COVID-19 has forced us all to embrace and rely on virtual technology to conduct business. This sudden change has impacted supply chain operations and strategy execution, from staffing to supplier engagement and operational performance.

If you’re just starting to discuss elective procedures, supply chain must continuously communicate and develop relationships with key players to maintain the importance of supply chain input in their minds.

Matching Needed PPE with Donors and Hospitals: A Free HealthEquip Resource

As providers begin to pivot from this pandemic back to a standard model of care, now is the time for product and service suppliers to begin engagement. Below are 5 leading practices suppliers can use to engage their provider customers during the COVID-19 pandemic. 1. The right time to engage is now 2. Show understanding compassion, empathy and patience 3 & 4. Offer short- and long-term plans 5. Overall, listen. Supply chain will let you know what they need and when

Jeff Berman, Principal and Healthcare Supply Chain Practice Leader at Grant Thornton, discusses emerging trends in the health care supply chain due to COVID-19 and steps health care organizations can take to build a stronger and more resilient supply chain.

Supply chain leaders share their processes and experiences in managing non-labor and non-personnel expenses.

Provider panelists discuss their post-pandemic approach to their business continuity programs, working with non-traditional buyers, diversifying their suppliers and the increased focus on supply chain analytics.

The AHRMM COVID-19 Recovery Guide for the supply chain professional is designed to assist supply chain leaders as their organizations expand services during the ongoing response to COVID-19. An After-Action Review template has also been created and is available for download for the supply chain department to objectively assess its performance during the COVID-19 crisis prior to updating its operational procedures.

Michael Brown, Director of Supply Chain Management and Eric Swaim, Manager of Strategic Sourcing and Vendor Management at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston share their unique approach to sourcing PPE supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic and how they plan to continue sourcing in the future.

Listen as distributor and manufacturer panelists discuss their changing strategies relating to COVID-19 lessons, domestic verses international production and ways providers, distributors and manufacturers need to work together moving forward.