In response to the school shooting in Oxford Township, Mich., the Blood Emergency Readiness Corps is sending extra units of blood to the local blood center to assist the needs for eight victims who are still hospitalized, according to a Dec. 1 release.

The American Red Cross reported record lows in the nation's blood supply and on Nov. 15 warned flu season could worsen shortages. Since then, facilities across the country have reported shortages and urged donors to come out.

Ten health systems have posted job listings for supply chain expertise in the last week:

Companies making and selling unreliable masks made nearly $30 million in sales in October, The New York Times reported Nov. 30.

Supply chain issues will likely persist through next summer, Jim Snabe, chairman of Munich, Germany-based Siemens and Copenhagen, Denmark-based Maersk, told CNBC Dec. 1. 

Hours of service exemptions for truckers carrying pandemic-related freight have been extended, a U.S. Transportation Department agency announced this week, citing the need to ensure capacity to respond to a potential rise in COVID-19 cases.

Biomedical engineers in Massachusetts make an average of $124,160 annually, making it the state with the highest wages for that workforce in the country, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Female healthcare workers are more likely to get headaches from wearing personal protective equipment compared to male healthcare workers, a study published Nov. 13 in Brain and Behavior found. 

Delayed shipments at ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., have led to shortages in medical supplies across the country, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Nov. 28.

The CDC is funding research from Vanderbilt analyzing daily hospital personal protective equipment on-hand inventory to measure trends, patterns or statistically significant changes in supply in hospitals across the nation, according to a Nov. 17 press release.

Ten health systems have posted job listings for supply chain expertise in the last week:

Currently available PPE may not be optimal for female and minority healthcare workers given differences in facial dimensions, a study published Nov. 11 in BMJ Global Health found.

Many public health experts say cheap, widely available at-home COVID-19 tests would help Americans safely return to normal activities and help control the spread of COVID-19. These tests are still hard to come by nearly two years into the pandemic, however, due to the pace of FDA authorizations and manufacturing bottlenecks, Kaiser Health News reported Nov. 22. 

Although U.S. healthcare and pharmaceutical companies have maintained solid credit metrics throughout the pandemic, with 2021 third quarter results in line to be slightly better than expected for most sub-sectors, labor inflation and supply chain disruptions have led to higher costs and potentially lost revenue, Fitch Ratings reported Nov. 19. 

UPS Healthcare is opening a new distribution center in Louisville, Ky., with cold chain capabilities to expand global delivery of temperature-controlled healthcare supplies, CBS affiliate WLKY reported Nov. 21.

The past year’s challenges have shown the health care industry that there is always room for improvement within your supple chain strategies.

Global supply chain issues are beginning to ease, but shipping, manufacturing and retail executives said normal operations may not resume until next year, The Wall Street Journal reported Nov. 21. 

The Veterans Health Administration has been slow to modernize its supply chain, and that could be putting the quality of veterans' healthcare at risk, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released Nov. 18. 

Pandemic-related supply shortages have boosted demand for used medical equipment in Texas, Tanya Powell, the president of a Beaumont, Texas-based supply company, told 12 News, a dual ABC/NBC-affiliated television station licensed to Beaumont. 

Medical device recalls, whether voluntary or mandated by the FDA, ensure patient safety. Ten medical supply recalls reported by Becker's Hospital Review since the beginning of October: