Supply Chain

Fresenius Medical Care is increasing its Class I recall of syringes from about 370,000 to more than 12 million, the FDA said Nov. 15.

Cardinal Health is warning customers of more than 32 million syringes because they have different dimensions than older brands, resulting in compatibility issues with syringe pumps, the FDA said Nov. 14. 

Biotechnology company Thermo Fisher Scientific will be closing its plant in Auburn, Ala., and laying off 97 employees, ABC affiliate WTVM reported Nov. 14. 

Laryngoscopes have been stolen from two medical supply companies, Medtronic and Covidien, spurring a recall of more than 5,000 illegally sold, defective devices.

Nurses at a CHI Health hospital in North Dakota are calling on executives to stock emergency crash carts, which they say has been a monthslong issue, according to a letter published Nov. 13 in The Bismarck Tribune. 

Hospitals that use the SxanPro app to monitor their medical device inventories will now receive a personalized report each month for recalled products sitting on their shelves. 

Two legislators in charge of influential House committees are urging the Department of Veterans Affairs to rapidly onshore medical supply manufacturing and end its dependence on China, CNN first reported Nov. 8. 

Cardinal Health now sells the nation's first surgical gown with chest pockets designed to hold a surgical instrument in operating rooms, which the medical supply company invented with physicians at Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic.

The FDA is alerting healthcare providers to not use saline and sterile water products made by Nurse Assist after the Texas-based company recalled more than 70 solutions distributed by companies including Cardinal Health and McKesson.  

Medline and Salt Lake City-based University of Utah Health clinched a yearslong, exclusive partnership deal.