Parkview Health’s supply chain team deployed a self-distribution system to help quell issues during the height of the pandemic.
By Daniel Beaird
The process for evaluating IP-related products hasn’t changed for Fort Wayne, Indiana-based Parkview Health, which includes seven acute care hospitals across three states. However, the speed increased due to demand and availability of products during the height of the pandemic. What would typically take a few months in reviews and committees took one week.
“Aligning the evaluation process to market availability was a transformational shift for our organization,” said Jesse Stanton, director of supply chain integration for Parkview Health. “Fortunately, our IP team was integrated into our incident command center and that allowed for evaluation to occur in a timely fashion.”
“Every disaster or pandemic, whether realized or feared, has been on our radar for years,” Stanton added. “We are constantly conducting risk assessments on every type of disaster and strategizing on how best to stock, procure and evaluate to place our health system in the best position to provide excellent care to all in need.”
Masks, gloves, surface disinfectants and hand sanitizers
Supply and procurement for gloves, masks, surface disinfectant, and handwashing soap and sanitizers were critical. Masks saw utilization in areas that otherwise didn’t use them, in part due the changing CDC guidelines. “Mask demand in some cases increased by 1,000% and restrictions were placed on ordering through our normal supply lines and primary distributor,” Stanton said. “Allocations from primary procurement vendors were put in place based on usage in the fourth quarter of 2019.”
This caused Parkview Health’s procurement team to reach out to nontraditional vendors. “Our strategy was to obtain in bulk purchases of substitute procedural masks that were set for delivery during the middle of 2020, while still procuring and building stock of our standard products,” Stanton said. “We were able to procure the appropriate masks needed for source control and the N95 masks needed for high-risk areas.”
Though Parkview has an adequate supply of masks and shields, it’s partnering with Hospital Laundry Service to create a stockpile of cloth masks, which can be used as backup to the main supply.
Gloves weren’t as big of a procurement issue as masks for Parkview Health. “Our infection prevention and control guidelines and compliance for glove utilization were robust prior to COVID-19,” Stanton said. “So, we had an increase in demand when COVID-19 numbers increased, but it was manageable.”
Manufacturing and raw material issues led to shortages for nitrile gloves earlier this year, after there was a demand increase nationwide due to larger vaccination efforts. “These disruptors have caused our organization to diversify our glove product and procurement activities, like incorporating vinyl into certain areas of use,” Stanton said. “Our supply chain team collaborated with our IP team to vet and determine which areas could be transitioned to other gloves.”
On the disinfectant side, the demand for surface wipes increased the most during the pandemic. It was also immediately placed on allocation by primary procurement sources and forced Parkview’s teams to source alternate products to meet use requirements. “We transitioned to locally sourced, infection prevention approved surface disinfectants made available in appropriate quantities,” Stanton said. “The initiative was coined as the ‘bottles and buckets brigade’ and much of the product line was provided in spray format.”
Hand sanitizers were among the most requested and variable in the availability of standard products. “Our procurement teams sourced multiple hand sanitizer substitutes,” Stanton said. “Like most health systems, we turned to local alternative sources, including distilleries, for hand sanitizers that were used in limited areas to protect our standard stock.”
Most of Parkview’s PPE-related products, including cleaners and disinfectants, were on rolling backorders during the height of the pandemic. “Even other areas that would not necessarily be considered related to COVID-19 went on backorder due to shifts in manufacturing,” Stanton said. “Vaccination supplies were hit hard by backorders from last December to March due to ramped up vaccination efforts.”
Parkview’s self-distribution system and new product categories
Parkview Health deploys a self-distribution system that includes an off-site distribution center. It was able to expand into adjoining space to accommodate the increase in supply needs. “For supply continuity, we implemented a strategic stocking initiative in early summer 2020 that enabled our health system to weather the surge in fall 2020,” Stanton said. According to Stanton, this strategy included establishing aggressive hard limits, committed buys, alternate procurement from multiple distributors and bulk buys when available.
One of the unique categories that arrived for evaluation and procurement was laboratory specimen collection tubes. “These plastic lab collection tubes were an unintended casualty of raw material disruptions in plastics and polypropylene from manufacturing PPE-related products,” Stanton said. These PPE-related products included isolation gowns, masks and face shields.
“Switching collection tubes requires an enormous amount of work related to validation studies and instrument calibration,” Stanton said. “Evaluating and procuring these items has only occurred by the excellent collaboration between our laboratory professionals and our supply chain analysts.”
Stanton said the common backorder pattern has spilled over to other plastic composed categories such as catheters, blood collection holders and suction tubing.