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Hospital systems aim to make their communities healthier. Traditionally, that means simply providing health care. Increasingly, hospitals are going a step further, trying to create healthier communities by working with local suppliers and reducing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Hospital systems aim to make their communities healthier. Traditionally, that means simply providing health care. Increasingly, hospitals are going a step further, trying to create healthier communities by working with local suppliers and reducing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

Shortages of many generic drugs have plagued the U.S. health system for decades. The leading cause of drug shortages is quality issues at manufacturing plants, which are mostly located overseas. Some experts argue that bringing pharmaceutical production back to the U.S. will help companies and regulators better monitor manufacturing and avoid issues.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused demand for PPE to spike and demand for products used in elective procedures and primary care visits to plummet. Effective vaccines raised hopes for a return to normal, but the delta variant has complicated that calculus. The next step is predicting how demand will change in this new stage of the pandemic.

E-commerce has made retail shopping as easy as clicking a button. Telehealth has already brought some of those conveniences to health care. Now, companies are trying to figure out how to use the tools of e-commerce to improve the health care supply chain.

China is a manufacturing superpower and in many industries U.S. companies have a hard time competing. Now, many policy makers are interested in boosting manufacturing of medical products and drugs in the U.S.

Matt speaks with Beth Schenk, executive director of environmental stewardship for Providence, a health system that has a network of more than 50 hospitals in the Western U.S. Matt and Beth discuss the carbon footprint of the health care supply chain and how health care providers, distributors and manufacturers are trying to reduce their carbon emissions.

Most of the drugs sold in the U.S. come from overseas, exposing those supply chains to disruptions like natural disasters or political conflicts. Some researchers argue that using 3D printing to make drugs at the site of care could increase resiliency.

A network of small businesses, universities and enthusiasts used 3D printers to make millions of pieces of personal protective equipment last year. That helped mitigate supply shortages in some cases, but it’s not clear how useful the technology will be for the next pandemic.

The demand for gloves soared during the COVID-19 pandemic and those issues still persist. Now, a nationwide lockdown in Malaysia, which produces most of the world’s gloves, is slowing down production. The lockdown could last for weeks.

In 2020, dozens of businesses started manufacturing personal protective equipment to make up for severe shortages. As demand for PPE has declined, many of those small businesses are now close to shutting down. A trade group representing these companies wants the federal government to stop that from happening.

Last year, many drug researchers had to modify their clinical trials to include remote elements, like shipping drugs directly to patients and video check-ins. Now, pharmaceutical companies want to adopt some of those measure to make clinical trials more efficient. The challenge will be getting the supply chain to support these remote trials.

On the previous episode of Medically Necessary, Matt discussed how to increase the resilience of the health care supply chain with leaders from Vizient. On this episode, they discuss recent calls from industry leaders and politicians to produce more medical supplies in the United States.