Supply Chain

The FDA cracked down on its policy for COVID-19 antibody tests after public health officials raised concerns over the quality of the tests, which were allowed on the market without FDA review, Politico reported. 

The FDA has granted emergency use authorization to Roche for the use of its COVID-19 antibody test. 

Seven Northeast states are forming a consortium to purchase about $5 billion in medical equipment and supplies, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a May 3 news briefing.  

After recommending that hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers postpone surgeries in mid-March in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced guidelines on April 19 that detail how facilities can begin to resume procedures.1

The FDA granted emergency use authorization April 30 to a ventilator designed by NASA that is tailored specifically to COVID-19 patients. 

The federal government will send two-week supplies of personal protective equipment to more than 15,000 nursing homes across the country, The Hill reported. 

LabCorp, one of the private labs that have conducted a significant amount of COVID-19 testing during the pandemic, said it is furloughing employees in response to a lack of routine testing business, the Times-News reported. 

Private labs have conducted more than 85 percent of all COVID-19 tests in the U.S., but those tests haven't offset the financial losses some labs are facing due to a lack of routine testing. 

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

St. Louis-based BJC HealthCare system developed a process to disinfect N95 respirator masks and return them to their original users for reuse for up to three weeks, an article published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons shows.