September 24, 2021 – Shortages of medical supplies like masks and gloves that marked the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic have spread to a host of other items needed at medical facilities in the U.S., from exam tables and heart defibrillators to crutches and IV poles, reports Reuters.
It can now take up to five months to get some types of exam tables, for instance, compared to three to six weeks before the pandemic, according to CME Corp (Warwick, RI), a distributor of medical equipment that handles over 2 million products.
Shortages of raw materials, including plastics, metals, glass, and electronics, have hampered production. In the case of exam tables, tight supplies of electronic controllers, metal, and even the foam padding used to build them are hampering producers, Cindy Juhas, chief strategy officer for CME Corp said.
The shortfalls – which coincides with a hospital staffing squeeze that is forcing some facilities to ration care during the latest surge in COVID cases – are part of a larger supply-chain disruption that has hampered the movement of goods around the world in the wake of the pandemic.
Many of the items in short supply have nothing to do with treating COVID. At CME, heart defibrillators that used to take two weeks to deliver now require three months.
“They normally have all the parts, so they put them together and put it on a truck,” she said. “But now they’re just waiting for parts.”
Even mundane items are snagged. Portable plastic toilets – used in hospital rooms so patients don’t have to walk to the bathroom – now are back-ordered three to four months. “That’s an item you usually can order and get right away,” said Juhas, who said she expects the larger array of supply problems to linger well into next year.