At a professional networking event recently, I was glad when someone walked up to me to acknowledge the role played by Supply Chain professionals during the Covid19 pandemic. While the frontline warriors - doctors, nurses, other hospital staff – have primarily been under the spotlight, and rightly so, it was heartening to note that the efforts of so many other back-end professionals hadn’t gone completely unnoticed.
Virginia Health Department officials are blaming supply-chain disruptions and a surge in demand to explain the lack of easily accessible rapid COVID-19 testing for local health departments.
The ultimate goal of the healthcare supply chain is to ensure the right products in the right quantities are in the right places at the right times to support patient care.
Supply chain chaos will likely persist through to the middle of next year, according to Jim Snabe, chairman of German conglomerate Siemens and Danish shipping firm Maersk.