ECMC Hospital in Buffalo, N.Y., has two weeks of personal protective equipment on hand after a 75-day supply was destroyed in a fire July 20, WGRZ, a Buffalo-based NBC affiliate, reported. 

PartsSource, a company that connects hospitals and clinics with medical device vendors and repair companies, will be acquired by private equity firm Bain Capital Private Equity, the companies said July 20. 

The Government Accountability office released a report this week making 15 recommendations for how the U.S. government can improve its COVID-19 pandemic response. 

The Strategic National Stockpile is in much better shape than it was at the beginning of the pandemic, Dawn O'Connell, HHS secretary for preparedness and response, told a U.S. Senate panel July 20, The Washington Post reported. 

In response to both changing healthcare policies and the COVID-19 pandemic, patients are being pushed to lower-cost settings, most common of which is the ambulatory surgery center (ASC).

Six lawsuits and settlements involving medical suppliers, as reported by Becker's Hospital Review in 2021: 

Nephron Pharmaceuticals, a drugmaker based in West Columbia, S.C., said July 15 that it is launching a new company, called Nephron Nitrile, to produce medical-grade gloves and shore up the domestic personal protective equipment supply chain. 

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

Nontraditional manufacturers have used 3D printing to deliver millions of medical supplies, such as masks, face shields and other medical devices, over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, helping to reduce supply shortages, according to a report released by the FDA.

A federal jury has convicted the owners of two Texas-based medical supply companies on charges of conspiracy to defraud the U.S., to pay and receive healthcare kickbacks and to commit money-laundering. 

Premier and Honeywell have partnered to expand domestic production of nitrile exam gloves, the companies said July 13. 

The equipment and supplies unit of Morgantown, W.Va.-based Mon HealthCare struck a joint-venture deal with Dasco Home Medical Equipment, a Westerville, Ohio-based maker of durable medical equipment.

To impact costs around product usage, the supply chain needs support from clinicians.

New York City's comptroller, Scott Stringer, has sued the city and Mayor Bill de Blasio, claiming an emergency executive order signed by the mayor during the height of the pandemic that allowed him to bypass normal procurement procedures has led to the city overspending on medical supplies that were never delivered or never used, The New York Times reported. 

Alere, a medical device company acquired by Abbott in 2017, has agreed to pay $38.75 million to resolve allegations that it knowingly billed Medicare for defective testing devices, the U.S. Justice Department said July 8. 

Puritan Medical Products, one of the world's two major producers of COVID-19 testing swabs, is extending a furlough of 180 employees as demand for the tests falls, the Bangor Daily News reported July 8.  

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

Quidel is recalling its Lyra COVID-19 test because of a "significant" risk of false negative results in people infected with high amounts of the virus, the FDA said July 7.

Surmodics, an Eden Prairie, Minn.-based devicemaker, has acquired devicemaker Vetex Medical for $39.9 million, the companies announced July 6. 

U.S. hospitals are being forced to postpone surgeries in the face of a national blood shortage, CBS News reported July 6.