How GPOs worked with members to provide necessary medical equipment to healthcare workers.
By Todd Ebert, R.Ph., President and CEO of the Healthcare Supply Chain Association (HSCA)
June 2024 – The Journal of Healthcare Contracting
Four years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare providers and patients across the country are still dealing with the aftermath of the outbreak. Throughout the pandemic and beyond, healthcare group purchasing organizations (GPOs) have continued to serve as the sourcing and contracting partners to long-term care facilities, surgery centers, clinics, and hospitals across the country.
As the COVID-19 pandemic began, GPOs worked diligently with all stakeholders across the healthcare industry, as well as federal, state, and local health and emergency management agencies, so healthcare providers of all sizes could focus on their core mission: providing first-class patient care. GPOs used several strategies to help mitigate stress and prepare the healthcare industry in case of a future outbreak:
Helping healthcare providers access Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). One GPO used its global sourcing aim to identify new manufacturing capacity streams, ultimately contracting with several different PPE suppliers to secure millions of masks, respirators, and gowns.
Enabling a supply of essential medical supplies. Multiple GPOs worked with non-traditional and adjacent industries such as distilleries, textile manufacturers, and automobile manufacturers to fill supply gaps for essential products such as hand sanitizer, isolation gowns, and surgical caps.
Driving quality throughout the healthcare system. A GPO worked around-the-clock to vet new manufacturers for compliance with standards set by the FDA and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to ensure product viability and quality on behalf of the GPO’s provider members.
Increasing the supply of critical drugs. Multiple GPOs launched programs to strengthen the resiliency of the supply chain for essential drugs, helping to strengthen competition, mitigate shortages, and increase supplies of critical drugs for patients.
Working with policymakers and public officials to inform response efforts. Many GPOs worked closely with the White House to provide data on surge demand, clinical utilization, and barriers to providing care and improving healthcare delivery during the pandemic.
The Healthcare Supply Chain Association (HSCA), which represents the nation’s leading traditional healthcare GPOs, works diligently with its member GPOs and their healthcare provider members to ensure that auxiliary services are in place in case a major health emergency like the COVID-19 pandemic occurs again. Since the pandemic, HSCA and its member GPOs have also worked diligently with Congress to provide recommendations on how to effectively prevent and mitigate drug and product shortages affecting the healthcare industry. These recommendations include:
Invest in quality and building secondary supply lines. HSCA and its member GPOs recommend that Congress should not only incentivize production, but also invest in quality and capacity, including the addition of secondary supply lines and having alternate or backup sources of API to support long-term access to generic medications.
Maintain and/or require buffer inventory. HSCA and its member GPOs recommend that the federal government, through the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), and the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS), create, maintain, and/or require buffer inventory for critical medications and devices so there is always an auxiliary supply available.
Create incentives to increase domestic manufacturing. Should Congress elect to create incentives related to domestic manufacturing, HSCA recommends that the incentives be tied to quality and the amount of product sold in the U.S. For incentives to tangibly impact pricing dynamics, they must align with quality products being made and sold in the U.S.
Increase transparency. Healthcare GPOs are leaders in transparency. HSCA recommends that input from GPOs and other private industry stakeholders be used to determine which drugs and products should be considered for buffer inventory.
Mitigate product delays. HSCA recommends that Congress encourage FDA to provide 503B compounding facilities with more flexibility to meet provider demand and loosen restrictions to allow 503B compounders to make certain high-risk products in anticipation of a potential shortage, rather than only in response to an existing shortage.
Increase facility inspections. HSCA recommends that Congress increase funding for and encourage the FDA to increase the number of inspections. HSCA further recommends that Congress encourage FDA to begin unannounced foreign inspections for API suppliers and drug product manufacturers.
Reflecting on the pandemic four years later, it is important to consider the ways that GPOs continue to work with their healthcare provider members to continue mitigating and preventing shortages of necessary medical equipment, products, and devices, and how they work to bolster the resiliency of the healthcare supply chain. By providing recommendations to Congress and working with private and public industry stakeholders, HSCA and its member GPOs encourage collaboration and transparency across the supply chain and are better prepared to help patients across the country access the necessary products, devices, and medications they need in case another public health emergency occurs.