The shortage of iodinated contrast media that has rattled U.S. radiology since early May didn’t come from nowhere. It’s of a piece with widespread disruptions challenging healthcare supply chains everywhere since COVID-19 descended in 2020.
In fact, some of the volatility has been years in the making: Did you know the count of drug shortages increased annually from 5 to 31 between 2015 and 2019?
Accordingly, the intravenous contrast shortage centered on GE Healthcare’s Omnipaque (iohexol) is best understood not as a discrete problem to solve ASAP but as a new normal to accept as it is possibly if not probably here for the long haul.
MDLinx lays out the case in a brief but substantive news analysis published July 6.
Of Overordering, Hoarding and Shuttered Factories
Medical writer Joe Hannan speaks with a supply chain specialist at Rutgers Business School who points out that healthcare’s life-and-death character doesn’t exempt it from the basic forces of supply and demand.
The pandemic supercharged healthcare demand, notes David Dreyfus, PhD, just as similar pressures bore down across industries due to clogged shipping lanes, paralyzed ports, labor shortages and, not least, Chinese factories closed by lockdowns.
More than a few hospitals and health systems reacted by overordering.
“Then it really falls to these distributors, these manufacturers, to somehow ethically distribute” the coveted supplies, Dreyfus tells Hannan. “They know everybody’s going to be getting less than what they’re asking for because people are trying to hoard.”
Labor Dynamics Changing in China Much as They Did in the West
Hannan also interviews a professor of logistics, business and technology. Chaodong Han, PhD, of Towson University in Maryland sees the present supply-chain crisis as already a decades-long phenomenon.
Hannan’s paraphrase of Han’s viewpoint:
For over 30 years, the emergence of China as a player in the global economy has been driven by Western outsourcing of manufacturing. With a highly educated and skilled workforce, China has become the West’s go-to producer of myriad consumer goods as well as healthcare supplies.”
That’s not fresh news, but Han adds that labor dynamics have been changing in China much as they did in the West. This development has been causing Chinese manufacturing to “shift to the northwest of China, making distribution even more difficult.”
‘Think Not in Terms of Supplies But of Processes’
The analysis closes with recommendations for healthcare professionals interested in helping to build a more resilient supply chain.
For example, Prof. Dreyfus of Rutgers encourages healthcare workers to think “think not in terms of supplies but of processes. Processes move patients through the healthcare system, and the longer they’re in it, the more demand they create for resources, including material goods and provider time, both of which are in short supply.”
More:
What can you do to make a follow-up visit unnecessary? Could the issue be resolved with a telehealth call? Could it be addressed in an outpatient setting? And is it possible to send a provider to the patient’s home?”
There’s more. Read the full piece.
Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.