Pandemic, Supply Chain Challenges Drive the Importance of Reconsidering the Reusables vs. Disposables Debate

By Kelly M. Pyrek

The shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) and other key medical commodities during the earlier stages of the pandemic are causing healthcare systems to rethink their place in the supply chain when it is disrupted or depleted. Contracting with vendors with adequate manufacturing capacities
and suitable logistics, as well as domestic suppliers, can help shore up critical supply repositories. In its analysis of the impact of the pandemic in general and
sustainability efforts specifically, Practice Greenhealth (2021) characterized 2020 as the theoretical “canary in the coal mine” for the healthcare supply chain, which “grappled with incredible upheaval as global suppliers shut down at the onset of the pandemic. The extraordinary and sudden demand for PPE combined with the overdependence on imported PPE left the U.S. healthcare sector competing with itself, fighting internally for limited stockpiles of PPE and international supply.”

Practice Greenhealth (2021) adds, “Many hospitals were forced to ration PPE, causing protests from nurses and physicians on the front lines. Days of inventory on hand measures the time it takes for an organization to use the inventory it has in stock; close to 1 in 10 hospitals in the 2020 data set reported having less
than four days on hand of N95 respirators, the high-protection masks that clinicians utilize when treating infectious patients. Nearly 16 percent ran short on exam gloves.”

Read further from the March 2022 issue HERE