Health systems across the country and their supply chains acted quickly to procure supplies amid the early stages of COVID-19 cases. What was learned during that time will help health systems for future planning.
As recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) constantly changed during the height of the pandemic, healthcare facilities developed policies and procedures ensuring that the changing recommendations were appropriately applied in their setting. Healthcare personnel adhered to standard and transmission-based precautions when caring for patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection and donned recommended personal protective equipment (PPE) gear.
They identified and gathered the proper PPE to don, performed hand hygiene including hand sanitizer, and put on isolation gowns, N95 or higher filtering masks, face shields or goggles, and gloves. After all of that, they entered the patient room.
So how has supply and procurement changed for these PPE products? And how are healthcare organizations working to maintain supply continuity for these categories and for new infection prevention (IP) categories? Finally, how has future planning changed for IP categories and the supply chain? The Journal of Healthcare Contracting reached out to several supply chain leaders to get their insights.