By Lindsey Chastain

Hospitals nationwide are facing a growing crisis of shortages of essential medical supplies. Recent data shows backorders for critical items like PPE, medications, and testing kits have doubled compared to before the pandemic. Hospitals now see 800-1000 backordered products daily, on average.

Around 20% of vital supplies are experiencing scarcity rates above 5%. This leaves hospitals scrambling daily to find crucial items needed for proper patient care and treatment.

Luká Yancopoulos, CEO of Grapevine Technologies, a company aiming to improve healthcare supply chains through advanced technologies, says these shortfalls have reached crisis levels.

"A 'perfect storm' of factors is overwhelming supply chains, causing dangerous product shortages," said Yancopoulos. "From materials scarcity to delivery bottlenecks, this exposes the weaknesses in outdated supply chain systems."

Yancopoulos warns that patient care and safety are severely threatened when basic medical supplies suddenly become unavailable. Without access to essentials like PPE, medications, and devices, risks of mistakes, delays, canceled procedures, discontinued interventions, and missed or inaccurate diagnoses substantially increase.

However, Yancopoulos believes innovative solutions like AI, blockchain, inventory software, and supply chain digitization can strengthen and stabilize medical supply chains. Implementing these technologies helps eliminate waste, enable just-in-time delivery, foresee shortages, and better withstand disruptions.

"By making supply chains more nimble, transparent, adaptable and resilient, we can overcome today's acute shortages endangering patients," said Yancopoulos. "The healthcare industry must start investing meaningfully in advanced supply chain technologies and solutions before this crisis worsens further."

Yancopoulos proposes several solutions to address the mounting medical supply shortages. He advises that hospitals implement inventory optimization software to gain real-time visibility into stock levels and forecast demand surges before they lead to stockouts. Manufacturers of essential supplies like PPE and medications should adopt agile, digitized production practices to rapidly adapt to changes in clinical needs.

Healthcare providers can use blockchain tools to eliminate waste and efficiently track supplies across the entire supply network. Optimizing logistics and delivery will help resolve distribution bottlenecks that delay supply shipments. Finally, healthcare organizations should collaborate to combine their purchasing power for constrained supplies and coordinate mutual aid to avoid harmful competition and stockpiling. Implementing these measures will help strengthen medical supply chains and prevent catastrophic shortages going forward.

"We can't rely on quick fixes or temporary responses to supply crises," Yancopoulos emphasized. "Permanent infrastructure and process improvements are needed to prevent catastrophes going forward."

Luka Yancopoulos is the CEO of Grapevine Technologies and a rising force in the healthcare industry. As a distinguished VIPER student at UPenn, Luka's impactful academic journey has equipped him with invaluable knowledge. With six years of research and professional experience under his belt, including groundbreaking nanopore bioanalytic research and collaboration with esteemed institutions like CHOP, Luka's passion for improving healthcare logistics became evident. Inspired by the challenges he witnessed firsthand, Luka fearlessly founded Pandemic Relief Supply (PRS) in April 2020, spearheading the delivery of over $20M in critical supplies, including generous donations to the AFYA Foundation. Now, with the founding of Grapevine in June 2021, Luka's unwavering commitment to revolutionizing the healthcare supply chain shines bright. Stay tuned as he leads Grapevine on a transformative journey to redefine the industry.