Healthcare workers experienced shortages of personal protective equipment into early May, with about two-thirds citing insufficient supplies of N95 masks, according to a poll from The Washington Post and Ispos. 

HHS gave $225 million to rural health clinics May 20 to boost access to COVID-19 testing in rural communities. 

While medical device recalls declined in the first quarter of 2020, a surge in product recalls is expected when the relaxed regulatory environment ends, according to medical waste disposal and compliance training company Stericycle.

Managing a hospital or health system’s transportation costs is a complex task that requires proactive planning and ongoing monitoring to maximize savings and control costs. 

Thermo Fisher Scientific has signed a contract to supply the US government with viral transport media to move swabs with COVID-19 test samples to labs. 

The process of obtaining medical masks is filled with fraud as some sellers try to take advantage of states' desperation for masks to protect against COVID-19, The Washington Post reported. 

State officials said they received mislabeled and incorrectly packaged shipments of medical supplies from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that have delayed COVID-19 testing, The Hill reported. 

The FDA May 16 granted emergency use authorization to a second COVID-19 diagnostic test that allows patients to collect samples using nasal swabs. 

According to a joint statement from the American College of Surgeons, the American Society of Anesthesiologists, the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses, and the American Hospital Association, patient demand for nonessential surgeries may be immense once the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is behind us.

AdventHealth ended its contract with a third-party lab after about 35,000 COVID-19 tests it processed were found to be unreliable, the Altamonte Springs, Fla.-based health system said May 18 in a news release. 

As hospitals and outpatient facilities resume surgeries according to federal and state guidelines, ensuring the availability of surgery-critical resources will be top of mind.

Medical device and drug recalls, whether voluntary or mandated by the FDA, ensure patient safety. Here are seven reported to the FDA in the last month:

Abbott's COVID-19 diagnostic test may return false negatives, the FDA warned.

The White House said it plans to expand and restructure the strategic national stockpile. 

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

The Federal Emergency Management Agency canceled a $55.5 million contract it had signed with Panthera Worldwide, a small Virginia company, to provide the government with N95 masks, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Hospitals in Boston that have historically been rivals are sharing supplies, equipment, data and staff in an effort to treat COVID-19 patients, The Boston Globe reported. 

LabCorp and Quest Diagnostics both said they've ramped up their COVID-19 testing capacity.

The White House has revealed how it plans to distribute $11 billion from the CARES ACT to support state testing, Politico reported. 

The FDA granted emergency use authorization for Abbott Laboratories' new COVID-19 antibody test, the company said May 11.