Shortages of ambulances and emergency medical service employees are straining healthcare in some pockets of the U.S.

Tri-City Medical Center, which is based in Oceanside, Calif., and serves Carlsbad and Vista, chose Medline as its primary supplier in a deal worth $30 million. 

Tampa-based University of South Florida was awarded a Patent for Humanity award by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for its 3D-printed nasopharyngeal swab.

The federal government spent $8.2 billion on medical supplies in 2021's fiscal year, amounting to a 38 percent drop in medical supply spending from the prior year, according to a Jan. 12 report from the Health Industry Distributors Association. 

As Gartner began listing the top 10 of its 25 healthcare supply chain ranking, the Geisinger supply team got nervous during its Microsoft Teams meeting, Kate Polczynski, Geisinger's vice president of enterprise supply chain, told Becker's. 

Here are 10 health systems and hospitals that posted job listings seeking supply chain expertise in the last week. 

More than 2 in every 5 medical devices the FDA authorized with the 510(k) pathway had predicates that were Class I recalls — the most serious type of recall — according to a study published Jan. 10 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. 

The nation's healthcare industry and medical supply chain are closely watching potential repercussions from a suspected COVID-19 surge in China, NBC News reported Jan. 8. 

Lisa Scannell, vice president of supply chain management at Mass General Brigham, joined the Somerville, Mass.-based health system 28 years ago. In that time, she's worked her way up from materials management manager to VP.

New Orleans-based Ochsner Health's supply company, SafeSource Direct, manufactured 1.5 million shoe covers for an HHS agency one month ahead of schedule. 

Here are 10 health systems and hospitals that posted job listings seeking supply chain expertise in the last week. 

The director of the FDA's medical supply division praised the recently passed spending bill for its "total product life-cycle approach" and cybersecurity measure allowances, Politico reported Jan. 3. 

St. Vincent Hospital, a Leadville, Colo.-based hospital that recently needed a county bailout to pay its employees, paid for $169,000 worth of medical equipment it cannot use at its high altitude, 9news reported Jan. 3.

Hospitals' supply of two types of blood thinners wavered before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study published Dec. 26 in the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy. 

As health systems struggled with medical supply disruptions affected by inflation, geopolitical conflicts, demand spikes and COVID-19, here are eight noteworthy shortages from 2022:

Here are three moves Cardinal Health made in late 2022:

Here are eight drug and medical device recalls the FDA reported in December:

The reworked CPAP and BiPAP machines from Philips Respironics were found to be "unlikely to result in an appreciable harm to health in patients," Philips said Dec. 21. 

3M, a manufacturer of personal protective equipment and health supplies, said it would work to discontinue manufacturing with "forever chemicals" by 2025. 

Agiliti, a Minneapolis-based medical device management company, inked a $491 million contract with HHS to manage and maintain the nation's emergency supply of respiratory medical devices, the Star Tribune reported Dec. 19.