Healthcare Distribution 101 Help your team, your trading partners, and other stakeholders understand important reasons that healthcare providers rely on distributors for their supplies and the critical role distributors play in crisis response.
Media Engagement HIDA began educating national, regional, and trade reporters, many of whom had never covered the healthcare supply chain and PPE, about the important role of medical products distributors who tap into their expertise to offer care-givers assurance that they will receive quality, FDA-approved products to treat patients.
Supply Chain Essential This campaign recognizes the distributor and manufacturer teams working to deliver medical products during COVID-19.
PPE Availability And Stockpiles
90-Day PPE Stockpile Mandates Increase Shortages And Drive Up Costs Policymakers are consider-ing mandates for healthcare providers to maintain long-term stockpiles of critical supplies such as PPE. These mandates are likely to increase supply shortages and drive up costs to hospitals. A better solution is to stockpile government controlled pandemic supplies at the country’s 500+ existing distributor warehouses across the U.S., positioning inventory close to healthcare providers for immediate surge needs during a crisis.
HIDA CEO Presents On Medical Industry PPE Demand To Defense Department HIDA President & CEO Matthew J. Rowan presented medical industry PPE demand projections during a live Virtual Information Session, Current And Future Demand For Domestic Personal Protective Equipment, hosted by Department of Defense’s COVID-19 Joint Acquisition Task Force and the Defense Logistics Agency. The meeting’s goals were to help current and potential PPE suppliers understand the PPE require-ments across multiple sectors of the economy as well as to discuss how the medical device industry and government agencies can partner in the planning for and consumption of domestically-produced PPE.
Medical Products Distribution By-The-Numbers U.S. healthcare distributors provide the infrastructure of the nation’s medical products supply chain. This infographic outlines how commercial distribution reaches every provider location and all care settings, from hospitals to patients in their homes, and everything in between.
Albany Times-Union: Large Medical Product Stockpiles Divert Supplies From The Front Lines To The Back Shelf This op-ed by HIDA’s president and CEO addresses proposals like those by New York that require healthcare providers to maintain a 90-day stockpile of critical medical supplies, highlighting how they can divert supplies from the front lines to the back shelf of a warehouse.
Demands And Shortages
COVID-Driven Demand Created Supply Problems That Have Challenged The Supply Chain The COVID-19 pandemic has driven demand for supplies sky-high at a time of global supply constraint, as this infographic shows. Worldwide demand has increased greatly and swiftly at the same time a major manufacturing center has decreased supplies.
A Lack Of Manufacturing Capacity Is Causing A Global Glove Shortage This infographic outlines the factors driving single-use glove demand, and how medical products distributors can help mitigate shortages.
What Does Allocation Mean? When medical supplies are limited, distributors may place them on allocation, as outlined in this infographic. Allocation is a system designed to distribute a fair proportion of available supplies among healthcare providers when there are shortages. This preserves inventory for customers as long as possible.
Opportunistic Brokers Corrupt The Supply Chain
Difference Between Distributors And Brokers This visual one-page chart helps to quickly differentiate opportunistic traders from legitimate com-mercial distributors who are working to ensure a reliable flow of high quality medical products to providers.
What Happens When Brokers Get Involved Opportunistic traders should not be confused with legitimate commercial distributors working to ensure a reliable flow of high-quality medical products to providers.
A Path Forward
Lessons Learned: A Path Forward For Pandemic Planning HIDA President and CEO Matthew J. Rowan authored an opinion piece illustrating the unprecedented challenges COVID-19 created for the healthcare supply chain. To better prepare for a potential virus resurgence and avoid future product shortages, he recommends that government agencies partner with commercial distributors to manage a national reserve of key products and increase diversity and elasticity throughout the supply chain.
COVID-19 Supply Chain Summit As part of HIDA’s 2020 Streamlining Healthcare Expo & Business Exchange, experts shared insights on a wide range of topics from pandemic preparedness to selling virtually amidst the pandemic.