Safety Matters

Supply chain players reinforce post-Sept. 11 operations

by Todd Shields

An executive for the largest and nearest medical supply distributor to ground zero hospitals in the New York terrorist assaults says he has since witnessed a higher level of emergency preparedness among supply chain operators. Manny Losada, vice president of corporate business for Caligor, Pelham Manor, NY, says he is unaware of any regional customer that has not convened an internal committee to consider extra emergency supply plans should another attack occur.

“Many of our hospitals have been contacting us during off hours with questions about product formularies and maintaining communications following Sept. 11,” says Losada. Nintety-six minutes after a second jetliner struck the World Trade Center, Caligor dispatched a loaded, 24-foot truck to St. Vincent’s Hospital in lower Manhattan, the facility closest to the World Trade Center. By day’s end, St. Vincent’s had cared for 300 injured people.

Stemming from a 1991 commercial airliner crash near Long Island and the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, Caligor organized an internal disaster recovery team to oversee supply operations in New Jersey and New York, the company’s prime delivery territory.

Losada, who lost 14 friends and business associates in the Sept. 11 attacks, says 22 Caligor project teams worked straight through to 3 a.m. the next day to serve the hospitals.

Al LoBiondo, senior vice president of supply chain management for the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA), says most urban and suburban hospitals in the U.S. are required to have disaster plans in place that involve supply coordination with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The GNYHA is part of the collaboration through New York City’s Office of Emergency Management.

In addition, LoBiondo said hospitals have emergency agreements with their major suppliers for immediate delivery based on a just-in-time system, usually overseen by distributors.

“In an emergency, distributors would handle the bulk of transporting supplies because 65 percent to 70 percent of a hospital’s needs come through the distributor,” he says. “The Sept. 11 [attack] took place in an urban area, but other locations in less populated regions have nearby nuclear power plants. I think emergency plans now will be expanded and drilled more often to a greater degree.”

LoBiondo did not notice breakdowns or shortages in the supply flow, “at least not to a critical point, due to great communication within the medical communities.”

Says LoBiondo, “We haven’t heard if hospitals are lacking supplies and they haven’t been calling us with reports of delayed supplies.”

Frequently, hospital administrators want to see emergency contingency plans when they release requests for proposals to distributors and vendors, explains John Marks, spokesman for Medline Industries, Mundelein, IL. “Historically, we’ve kept very high inventories of all supplies at our 25 distribution centers. If one becomes inoperable, the closest distributor will step in. We have some transports done by air, but the majority of supplies are transported on the ground,” he says.

Protective apparel shortage?

Since Sept. 11 and subsequent anthrax-related deaths and contaminations, Marks says Medline has recorded a tenfold increase in inquiries from consumers outside the medical field for purchasing protective apparel like gloves and masks that were available in limited quantities.

“Both medical professionals and general consumers are increasingly aware of the importance of wearing the appropriate protective wear when attending to a patient or conducting other activities that could expose them to harmful bacteria,” says Rich Maddiex, president of Medline’s disposable apparel division.

At Allegiance Healthcare Corp., McGaw Park, IL, executives have overseen a long-standing plan for maintaining supply lines in the face of natural disasters and terrorist attacks.

In case of serious supply disruptions, five regional presidents located in cities coordinate a four-step plan that cover keeping open lines of communications, activating transportation modes other than road vehicles, ensuring hospital preparedness in the use of power generators for example and controlling inventory.

“It’s a very active process and since Sept. 11 we have reviewed it fairly often. Unfortunately, there are times we have to deploy this plan during acts of God, and I would say the [terrorist attacks] bolstered our relationship with state and federal officials,” says Tom Slagle, distribution president for Allegiance.

The threat of bioterrorism

In Washington, D.C., the assistant vice president of materials management at Washington Hospital Center said Sept. 11 has expanded general purchasing issues to include anti-bioterrorism supplies.

“Yes, there is a heightened awareness of taking precautionary measures for contamination in the type of supplies and how you get them,” says Renee Landry, who is also immediate former president of the Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management.

“I have a 12-hour supply window to cover here at my hospital, after which government agencies supply us with push packs for the next 12 to 24 hours. This plan has always been in place, but hospitals didn’t have a good understanding of it before Sept. 11,” she says. “I’m convinced if anything should happen we can handle it.”

Reacting to the recent tragedies, materials managers at 809-bed Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago began developing a “what-if” list of supplies outside of med-surg items for Allegiance, its prime vendor.

“We’re going out to departments and finding out what they need if a major building blows up in Chicago. ‘What if Sept. 11 happens here?’ is what we’re asking ourselves,” says John Cashmore, director of materials management at Rush-Presbyterian.

December