From Crisis to Capability: Strengthening Healthcare Supply Chains
Editor’s Note: In a recent Healthcare Purchasing News webinar series, John Wright, chief operating officer of Advantus Health Partners, offered a look at what has changed, what remains vulnerable, and what must still evolve for healthcare supply chains. Tom Redding, executive vice president of The St. Onge Company, focused on a changing workforce around talent pipelines, leadership evolution, and technological skills.
When the world shut down in 2020, healthcare supply chains were thrust into a spotlight few anticipated. Nearly six years later, the ripple effects continue to reshape policy, technology, labor, and the architecture of how medical products move from manufacturing sites to patient bedsides.
From efficiency to exposure
The disruptions of Covid were not a one-off crisis. They were a wake-up call. The pandemic may have receded, but the instability it exposed is still very much alive. For years, supply chains were built around efficiency at all costs. Few stopped to ask where raw materials came from or how many international touchpoints stood between a product and a patient.
“We’ve become a more mature supply chain since Covid,” said John Wright, chief operating officer of Advantus Health Partners. “We’ve gained visibility into sourcing, materials, and upstream risks we didn’t know existed.”
Today, health systems scrutinize manufacturing footprints, evaluate country-of-origin exposure, and dig deeper into the vulnerabilities buried within their suppliers’ suppliers. But increased visibility brings its own hazards.
“Not every blip is a crisis,” Wright cautioned. “If we overreact to signals, we drive the crisis ourselves. Excess demand can become its own crisis.”
The urge to react quickly to early warning signs can push organizations into overcorrection, creating the very instability they hope to avoid. This challenge of overreaction highlights a broader reality: in a world where disruptions can arise from countless sources, simply reacting faster isn’t enough. Organizations need tools that help them process complexity, anticipate risk, and make smarter, not just quicker, decisions.
Harnessing AI and automation
Modern supply chains are drowning in data, including weather shifts, factory shutdowns, shipping bottlenecks, labor strikes, and countless other variables that move simultaneously. No human team can keep pace. That’s why AI has become a critical force multiplier.
Wright emphasized that AI excels at surfacing weak signals, modeling risk, and issuing early warnings, but it is far from a crystal ball.
“AI is only as useful as the structure you build around it,” he said. “Blind reliance just means making bad decisions faster.”
As labor shortages continue to reshape healthcare, systems are turning to automation to keep operations moving. Autonomous cleaning robots, automated delivery systems, intelligent inventory platforms, and robotic process automation are now essential tools, not optional enhancements. At the same time, supply chain teams are taking on stronger clinical partnerships, helping eliminate product variation and supporting clinicians who are stretched thinner than ever.
Building the workforce of the future
While technology and automation are helping fill immediate gaps, they are only part of the solution. Sustaining a resilient healthcare supply chain also requires a workforce equipped with the skills, expertise, and strategic insight to navigate an increasingly complex and fast-changing environment.
Today’s supply chain complexity has far outpaced traditional staffing models. As veteran leaders retire and roles expand, attracting and retaining skilled professionals has become a growing struggle. Supply chain teams now drive enterprise strategy, analytics, logistics, and long-term planning, not just purchasing and distribution.
Do I have the right people? Do I have the right skills?
These are questions that now dominate executive agendas, according to Tom Redding, executive vice president of St. Onge, a world-recognized supply chain strategy and logistics consulting firm.
Over the past decade, the expectations for supply chain leaders have risen dramatically. Today’s leaders must demonstrate:
- Mastery of analytics platforms and automation tools.
- Deep logistics expertise as care extends into the home.
- Broad strategic and financial insight.
- Agility to navigate constantly shifting distribution models and volatile product availability.
Redding warned that many organizations remain unprepared for what lies ahead, particularly as healthcare decentralization accelerates and delivery models continue to evolve. Building a resilient workforce ecosystem demands close collaboration among GPOs, suppliers, consultants, and health systems.
“Every project, we learn something new,” Redding said. “And every project, we aim to leave the client in a stronger position than when we arrived.”
This continuous exchange of knowledge is essential for advancing the industry.
Attracting the next generation
Strengthening the workforce ecosystem and fostering collaboration lays the foundation, but attracting and developing the next generation of talent is equally critical to ensure long-term resilience and innovation.
Younger professionals are naturally drawn to industries celebrated for supply chain innovation like retail, e-commerce, and manufacturing. Redding warned that healthcare cannot afford to lag in this competition for talent.
The link between supply chain roles and patient outcomes is a compelling story, particularly for Gen Z, but storytelling alone is not enough. Health systems must demonstrate real innovation, offer meaningful challenges, and create clear, achievable pathways for career growth.
Tomorrow’s supply chain professionals must be technically skilled, intellectually curious, and highly adaptable. While certifications provide foundational knowledge, Redding emphasized that intrinsic motivation and a drive to solve problems often separate the best performers. True modernization depends not just on technology, but on people, including leaders and teams that approach change with empathy, user-centered design, and training rooted in real operational needs.
As veteran leaders retire, many health systems, especially small and mid-sized ones, are discovering that their current organizational structures cannot support career advancement or succession. Redding envisions a future where supply chain leadership is more specialized and layered, creating clear progression paths and reducing dependence on a single individual to manage sprawling operations.
Redding’s powerful advice for those starting their careers: be curious, stay proactive, ask plenty of questions, and don’t be afraid to take risks.
He said those qualities will shape the next generation of healthcare supply chain leaders, the ones who will spark innovation, build stronger systems, and make a real difference in the industry.
Even as organizations scramble to strengthen their internal capabilities, external pressures continue to test the system. Global dependencies and offshore production create vulnerabilities that no workforce alone can fully mitigate, making supply chain resilience a challenge that extends far beyond hospital walls.
Offshore dominance and persistent global risks
Offshore production still overwhelmingly dominates the healthcare supply chain. The appeal of overseas sourcing persists, fueled by America’s limited manufacturing capacity, significantly lower foreign labor and production costs, and the long, expensive runway required to rebuild domestic facilities. At the same time, global volatility has become the rule, not the exception, and geopolitical conflicts, trade upheavals, weather pattern disruptions, logistical bottlenecks, and raw material shortages threaten product flow.
Federal support may play a role in boosting domestic manufacturing over time. Incentives or changes to CMS purchasing rules could help move the market, but Wright noted that it’s wise not to depend too heavily on that, especially after the Strategic National Stockpile struggled during COVID.
“Resilience can’t be outsourced,” he said. “It has to be built deliberately and internally.”
Even the strongest supplier partnerships can collapse when manufacturing is concentrated in a single region. Wright underscored that real diversification is not simply adding more suppliers, but it is a deliberate geographic strategy designed to withstand the next inevitable disruption.
From the vulnerabilities exposed by the pandemic to ongoing labor shortages, offshore dependencies, and accelerating digital transformation, the industry faces a landscape of constant disruption. Building supply chains that can withstand these challenges requires more than technology or strategy alone. It demands a workforce equipped with the skills, vision, and adaptability to navigate complexity and drive meaningful change.
The Future of Patient-Centered Healthcare Supply Chains
Editor’s Note: Dr. Jimmy Chung, chief medical officer of Advantus Health Partners, and Omar Devlin, executive director of supply chain planning for Stanford Medicine, joined the webinar series to discuss the patient-centered digital supply chain.
Framing patients as “customers” fundamentally reshapes healthcare, placing their safety, outcomes, and overall experience at the center of every decision.
"Patients have the right to be consumers," emphasized Dr. Jimmy Chung, chief medical officer of Advantus Health Partners. "By prioritizing what matters most to them, like quality, reliability, and safety, we can make supply chain decisions that genuinely drive better outcomes."
Standardization has proven to be a powerful strategy. Limiting variability in procedures and products across clinicians not only cuts costs but also boosts reliability, reduces errors, and streamlines inventory management.
Equipped with real-time visibility into inventory, replenishment cycles, and alternative products, clinical teams can act decisively, ensuring optimal care.
Omar Devlin, executive director of supply chain planning for Stanford Medicine, highlighted the stakes with a personal example: a nurse struggling to locate a specific bandage.
"Frontline staff need clear visibility of what’s available, where it is, and when replenishment is coming," he said. "Making that information transparent transforms the patient’s experience."
This example underscores the vital role transparency and visibility play in the daily operations of healthcare supply chains. Building on that foundation, advanced technologies, especially AI and automation, are empowering teams to make faster, smarter decisions that have a direct, measurable impact on patient care.
Smarter, faster decisions
AI, automation, and predictive analytics are transforming healthcare supply chain operations, driving efficiency, accuracy, and better patient outcomes through:
- Standardization: AI harmonizes item descriptions and product data across multiple systems, reducing errors and ensuring consistency throughout the supply chain.
- Decision Support: AI-powered analytics provide actionable recommendations, ranging from vendor consolidation and pricing optimization to real-time inventory adjustments, based on clinical and operational data.
- Contract Management: AI scans contracts for compliance with pricing, rebates, and obligations, maximizing value while dramatically cutting manual workload.
Dr. Chung highlighted the clinical impact of AI through procedure analytics. By analyzing data across vendors and procedures, AI can identify standardized products or vendors that improve patient outcomes, reduce variability, and lower costs.
Predictive analytics is also reshaping supply chain strategy by enabling organizations to anticipate disruptions before they occur. Devlin shared Stanford Medicine’s experience using predictive tools to simulate scenarios, evaluate second-source suppliers, and optimize inventory levels.
"Even supply shortages for critical items, like IV fluids, can now be modeled in advance," Devlin explained. "This lets us proactively mitigate risks and maintain continuity of care."
Dr. Chung added that predictive analytics extends beyond supplies. By forecasting patient admissions and procedure volumes, hospitals can allocate resources and staff more effectively, ensuring the right care is delivered at the right time.
The road ahead
Devlin envisions a future where AI and automation seamlessly integrate EHR, ERP, and other systems, eliminating tedious manual work and empowering smarter, faster decision-making. Dr. Chung echoed this vision, asserting that AI will enable clinicians and operational leaders to make decisions for patients as effortlessly as we use smartphones to snap a photo.
Digital transformation in healthcare supply chains is no longer optional, but it is essential. By combining transparency, AI, predictive analytics, and a patient-centered approach, hospitals and health systems can deliver care that is safer, more efficient, and higher in quality, all while controlling costs.
Healthcare supply chains are evolving from logistical backbones into strategic, patient-focused engines. As Devlin and Dr. Chung emphasized, leveraging digital tools and AI is critical to building supply chains that are smarter, faster, and more resilient, and ensure patient care is always safe, reliable, and efficient.
For healthcare leaders steering this transformation, the directive is clear: put patients at the center, embrace technology boldly, and standardize wherever possible. The future of healthcare supply chains is digital, and patients are driving the agenda.
