We've spent the last month focusing on the big-picture issues, but the news waits for no man (or cat... or pig).
What's been going on in healthcare and/or its supply chain in the past week? Probably not much, right? Certainly not any major government announcements that the supply chain may be irreparably damaged and an industrywide acknowledgement that domestic PPE production has almost entirely failed. That would be crazy. And that doesn't sound like healthcare's supply chain.
Hopefully it was a slow, pleasant news week. Let's all find out together as we go through the Five To Save.
1. First things first: how is that dang ol' COVID-19 doing? Some government officials are optimistic about the direction the US is headed. But if you're curious about your specific region, look at these projections for where coronavirus cases are likely to increase the most.
2. Okay, but what about the direction the supply chain is headed? The government was less optimistic about logistics' future, including one state going so far as to declare a supply chain state of emergency. Will that stop the panic and make people pay attention?
3. What kind of problems have led to the failure of the supply chain? Well, for one, manufacturers are largely failing to produce and sell PPE. It turns out that's a hard thing to shift to when you have no experience in it. And yet some projects that have started rolling can't be stopped, like this glove plant coming to Maryland.
4. The flooding of the PPE market has not actually helped providers. In some ways, PPE has never been more available. The trick is finding high quality medical supplies. Guides like this checklist to use when buying nitrile gloves are extremely invaluable.
Feel free to use that on the nitrile exam gloves that we're offering at significant discount. They stand up to any quality test, because we like good gloves more than anybody. You know who likes bad gloves? Villains.
5. Where can healthcare providers focus their attention and budget, then, to improve their ability to deliver high quality care? Well, if you have a lot of extra PPE in storage (we know you do), you need a better warehouse with a larger team and more advanced features.
But that's only useful if you know what to do with the product once you have it. As the old proverb says...
So it's not enough to have the news in your head. You have to do something about it.
You know what we've been doing recently that kept us away from the news? We had our heads stuck in a black box. Inside we found a bunch of missing medical inventory and tortured metaphors.
Read our series on rebalancing your inventory that takes some significant liberties with Schrödinger's cat, then come back next week for more about why some healthcare improvement initiatives are doomed before they start.