Shortages, Recalls, and Rising Cost: Healthcare's Perfect Storm | Five To Save

What happens when healthcare providers and their supply chains are told that they will not be given the support that they need?

What happens when healthcare providers are tasked with expanding their reach and capabilities when they are denied the resources and supplies necessary to meet their most basic needs? 

Why, that sounds like it would be the perfect storm necessary for an industry to collapse. As the rest of the country is wising up to this idea, healthcare workers who have been weathering insane difficulties for years are looking around and saying: 

Not that institutionalizing an attitude of heroic suffering is a great thing. More on which in this week's Five To Save: 

1. A perfect storm has been brewing around COVID-19 testing and vaccination: 

• Fraudsters have been completely lying about providing tests and "consultations." 
• Some tests hitting the market were never approved, and some legitimate tests have been compromised and recalled. 
• Even if COVID-19 tests were widely available, testing is down across the U.S., despite warnings from experts saying we should be increasing our testing. 
• For the responsible folks who want to get tested and vaccinated, during an extended period last year, a vaccine manufacturing facility was shut down because J&J vaccines were contaminated with a Moderna ingredient. 

2. All of that is almost inevitable in a period of emergency. Bad actors are going to take advantage of the chaos, and the people who are trying to do good will have trouble if they aren't properly supported. The FDA's systems are almost comically outdated, which begs the question: in a storm, who's supporting the supporters? 

3. Struggling with outdated technology and outdated regulation is one of the biggest impediments to implementing a new tech solution in your healthcare facilities. 

4. But healthcare facilities - in particular their supply chains - need updated tech so they can assign value to their data and start analyzing that data to make even more valuable strategic decisions. 

5. Improving value and efficiency is ever more essential for hospitals struggling financially, whether they're losing money on investments or just having trouble meeting operational expenses. 

Let this moment of unprecedented demand for skilled professionals - and our recent blog about labor in healthcare - be the lightning strike of inspiration you need to improve your salary and benefits. 

(There we go. Brought it all together eventually.) 

Hey, speaking of bringing it all together and perfect transitions, we've been compiling all our knowledge about perfectly run physical inventory counts into a white paper that'll be free to download soon. Drop us a line if you'd like a copy before anybody else.