Regarding shortages and other disruptions, it’s even more complicated, as it requires understanding the cause of the shortage and how long it might last. The sourcing team needs to troubleshoot multiple aspects of the disruption, depending on the type of issue. For example: Are there recommended conservation measures being provided by the manufacturer? Is a different size of the same product available? And if so, does it represent a good alternative? And in which cases?
Currently many sourcing teams are spending 50-60 percent of their time chasing down disruptions in their various forms. And, when it comes to backorders, sourcing teams are seeing a 10-fold increase in these incidents compared to prior to the pandemic.
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How healthcare can solve the supply chain management crisis
Our industry needs a more efficient and transparent means of communication between suppliers and providers, not only in the event of product recalls, but also when it comes to the backorders, shortages and myriad other disruptions that have thrown the healthcare supply chain into turmoil in recent years. Such a system must account for the following.
● Electronic: Many members of hospital teams who aren’t in the trenches dealing with recalls and other disruptions are shocked to learn all communications aren’t electronic. But indeed, a lot of communication, especially with recalls, is still happening on paper. This needs to change.
● Complete: In addition to being electronic, supply chain disruption communications coming from suppliers need to be more transparent about causes and the path forward. It’s very different for a sourcing team to find out there is a backorder or shortage and have to start calling and emailing to find out details and options, as opposed to receiving an electronic communication that provides all the necessary information, including when the next expected update will be delivered.
● Consolidated: These electronic communications, in order to be useful to the providers, need to be delivered through a common source or platform that allows sourcing teams to manage all the disruptions in one place. In some cases, these teams are dealing with hundreds of disruptions. Today, their work is done via email, spreadsheets, SharePoint shared files, and other fragmented tools not designed specifically for the task. The process requires a lot of manual work and, in many cases, makes it very difficult to have a clear audit of what happened, what was done, and what was communicated.
