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How Hospitals Can Manage Supply Shortages When Demand Surges

How Hospitals Can Manage Supply Shortages When Demand Surges

The pandemic shed light on some gaps in the healthcare system as many facilities ran low on ventilators, testing systems, and even staff. Supply chain practices now require special efforts and attention more than ever. Let’s look at how hospitals can manage supply shortages when demand surges during peak seasons.

Learning in Real-Time

When a facility experiences a shortage, it engages its problem-solving skills through organizational resolutions. Repurposing can breed significant innovation that can fuel solutions for future lows and help immensely with in-the-moment demands. Any real-time data staff can collect and analyze shows a glimpse of what does and doesn’t work.

Synchronize Across Organizations

Pooling is a solution for inter-organizational problems when shortages occur. By synchronizing multiple facilities under one organizational umbrella, they can all more effectively meet the current demand by pooling and shifting resources where they are needed most. In such cases, when one facility experiences a surge in demand, the others that are less strained can provide support.

Pooling can also act as a communication measure, allowing organizations to share information about the quantity, locations, and availability of supplies and personnel. Materials inventory and equipment are relocatable, and facilities can discuss pooling with staff.

Policy Implementation for Short-Term Demands

By creating a proactive plan, hospitals can manage supply shortages when demand surges by forecasting short-term needs through data reading and patient flows. The prime example would be the COVID-19 impacts on the healthcare systems. A facility can make determinations by analyzing population density, daily or hourly test rates, and processing times for these tests.

The collected data is useful for forecasting short-term demands and provides insight into managing the supplies, potential shortages, and bottlenecks. A facility investing in lab software can improve its ability to manage the information and control a synchronized organizational pooling system.

For assistance in filling inventory demands and supply shortages, reach out to Med One Group. We offer medical equipment financing to facilities and organizations with unique solutions catered to various healthcare pressures.