Take the time this season to spring clean your supply chain by clearing out hidden inefficiencies that might be increasing costs at your facility.

In January 2021, the American National Standards Institute and Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation released four amendments related to steam sterilization and sterility assurance in healthcare facilities, presenting a lot of information for healthcare facilities to unpack. 

Medline is exploring a sale that could value the company at as much as $30 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported. 

The Atlanta VA Medical Center in Decatur, Ga., has had to throw out thousands of dollars in medical supplies due to poor management of them, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported this week. 

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

Thermo Fisher Scientific said April 15 it plans to acquire PPD, a North Carolina-based pharmaceutical testing company.

Global Health Exchange released its annual list of the 50 best healthcare supply chains in North America April 14. This year, GHX is honoring 51 hospitals and health systems due to a tie. 

Drugmakers around the world are facing a shortage of large plastic growbags used in part of the COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing process, The Guardian reported. 

Intermountain Healthcare, a 25-hospital system based in Salt Lake City, has signed a 10-year membership agreement with group purchasing organization Vizient, the companies said April 12. 

The FDA is urging hospitals to transition from crisis capacity measures such as decontaminating and reusing  N95 masks, citing an increased domestic supply. 

One of the biggest learnings from the COVID-19 pandemic has been the need for transparency of data.

3M has filed a lawsuit against Tarpon Springs, Fla.-based MM Medical Supply, claiming trademark infringement and fraud for allegedly selling fake N95 masks to a health system in Massachusetts, The Hill reported April 9. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has not only boosted the amount of supplies in the Strategic National Stockpile, but has changed the way it functions, KMGH, an ABC affiliate in Denver, reported April 8. 

Public health experts are raising concerns over medical waste generated by COVID-19 prevention and treatment, warning the waste could have long-term public health consequences, the Burlington (Vt.) Free Press reported April 8. 

Some health systems aren't vaccinating inpatients, even if they're sick with something other than COVID-19, while their supplies are strained, Minali Nigam, MD, an internal medicine resident at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, wrote for CNN. 

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

The FDA has authorized the first at-home COVID-19 antibody test, which allows people to collect finger-stick blood samples and send them to a lab for testing.

Compared to pharmaceutical companies, medical device and supply companies pay seven times more of their total industry revenue to physicians, according to a study published April 5 in Health Affairs. 

A supply chain manager at South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, Mass., told CBS Boston that after ordering 30,000 3M N95 masks from a third-party vendor, he was able to spot from a shipping box label that the masks were counterfeit. 

The U.S. has launched its fourth annual National Supply Chain Integrity Month and has issued a call to action for organizations across the country to strengthen their supply chains.