The American Hospital Association laid out five steps Congress should take to stabilize the U.S. medical supply chain during a May 19 Senate hearing:

Mayo Clinic and Thermo Fisher Scientific launched a joint venture May 19 to create diagnostic tests to manage a variety of conditions, the Post Bulletin reported. 

The CEO of a New Jersey safety-net hospital told U.S. senators May 19 about his facility's struggles to obtain medical supplies and medications during the initial COVID-19 response in 2020, and said even now he does not believe the U.S. is prepared for another pandemic, according to NJ.com.

Five years ago, UChicago Medicine decided to expand its ambulatory facilities to support consistent system growth. In the years since, the health system has expanded its ambulatory network from three locations to more than 45 sites of care. To do so, it had to create a consistent supply chain experience across all of its sites. 

Jeffrey Flaks, CEO of Hartford (Conn.) HealthCare, told GBH News, a Boston NPR station, May 19 that he is committed to sourcing more domestic personal protective equipment, and that he would like to see a more robust national stockpile of medical supplies. 

Drone companies are preparing to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to help vaccinate people living in remote areas who struggle to get access to a shot, The Washington Post reported May 19. 

Abbott is recalling nearly 62,000 pacemakers after finding they have the potential to short circuit. 

Over the past year, the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted healthcare providers in many significant ways.

Tennessee hospitals are still dealing with supply and staffing shortages, despite COVID-19 cases dropping across the state, WZTV, a Nashville-based Fox affiliate, reported May 13. 

Creating a "COVID-19 Cart" is among the ways UPMC responded to the global supply shortages experienced during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pittsburgh-based health system revealed in a May 14 blog post.

A group representing 26 U.S. mask manufacturers sent a letter to President Joe Biden this week urging him to create policies to boost domestic manufacturing of personal protective equipment. 

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

A Florida judge ruled May 12 that AdventHealth can collect $1.5 million after an asset management firm defaulted on a settlement agreement over a failed deal for personal protective agreement, according to Law360. 

Northwell Health in New Hyde Park, N.Y., is supplying India with 1 million KN95 masks, 35 ventilators and 1,000 oxygen concentrators as the country faces a severe spike in COVID-19 cases. 

 6 Benefits of Supply Chain Software 

Community Hospital Corporation Supply Trust now serves more than 100 hospitals, providing group purchasing organization access and supply chain management support to community hospitals, the company said May 10. 

The healthcare supply chain has moved very quickly in the last year to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, continuously adapting to deal with shortages. Mike Schiller, senior director of supply chain for the American Hospital Association's Association for Health Care Resource and Materials Management, discussed the state of the healthcare supply chain in a May 5 blog post. 

Ellume, an Australian company that makes the first fully at-home COVID-19 diagnostic test to be approved by the FDA, is opening its first U.S. production plant in Maryland this year, The Baltimore Sun reported May 10. 

To achieve a mature supply chain that not only reacts to crises such as COVID-19 but proactively prepares for them, health systems should prioritize data transparency and traceability. 

Citing restrictions related to the pandemic, the FDA will perform less than half of the non-food domestic surveillance inspections it had planned for fiscal year 2021, the agency said May 5.