Editor's note: It's been a year since COVID-19 changed everything. We take a look back at some of the pandemic's biggest impacts.
Just about a year ago, Providence health system's supply chief Brad Alexander was looking at early epidemiological models of COVID-19 when he began to realize just how disruptive the virus might become.
The models, which were showing how cases could ramp up in the U.S., painted a startling picture.
“It was projected to swamp our (intensive care unit) capacity and hospitalizations,” he told Fierce Healthcare in an interview. “I did the rough math on terms of (personal protective equipment). I knew it would be an incredible disruption on our delivery system.”
So Alexander, group vice president of supply chain operations, helped stand up a new way of evaluating the system’s supply chain needs.
“We stood up a materials requirement planning process,” he said. “You often see those in manufacturing industries. They are often not seen in healthcare delivery.”
A materials requirement planning system aims to forecast the needed materials for a manufacturing process.
In Providence’s case, the system used forecasting tools to plan their spot purchases of PPE to ensure there were enough supplies to help protect front-line workers from the virus.
“That is an example of a capability we didn’t have before,” he said.
Providence Health also stood up temporary warehouses across its 51-hospital network and employed third-party logistics vendors to take delivery of the goods and maintain the stocks on hand.
These changes to Providence’s supply chain operations came as the demand for PPE items such as N95 respirator masks exploded as the entire world sought to increase their supplies.
“The demand was one aspect of it but the entire supply chain was completely disrupted,” said Alexander. “Manufacturers became offline, and logistics were challenging and difficult to get things out of ports in China and into ports.”
Providence’s sourcing organization “really stepped up and scoured the world for secondary sources of PPE,” Alexander said.
The system also developed closer relationships with its distributor partners and shared their forecasts on PPE needs.
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Alexander’s department did not just deliver closer ties with its distributors but with the clinical leadership at Providence itself.
“We began to collaborate in a fundamentally different way with clinical leadership,” he said. “We forged a close relationship with the clinical analytics group on predictive modeling around disease incidents and the epidemic impact of COVID-19.”
The partnerships formed over the past year are going to continue, and Alexander hopes they persist long after the pandemic ends.
“We have really been through an epic struggle,” he said.
Other permanent changes include the material management planning process and tools that help the system track inventory levels and forecast demand.
But there is one task Alexander hopes his department won’t have to perform when things get back to normal.
“I hope we are not having to scour the world for supplies the way we are now,” he said.