CME Insider's Blog Posts

Covid-19 has been devastating to the healthcare supply chain in many ways. Past due payments, lack of visibility, and match exceptions proliferated during the pandemic. This experience has made all of us in the supply chain look at ways to improve going forward. One of the processes that has emerged for healthcare systems is the Procure-to-Pay model. The first step is to mine all of your processes including preparing the Purchase Order (PO), confirming the ship date, receiving the product, and invoicing. Then determine gaps, redundancies, inefficiencies, best practices, and possible automation all along the way. When correctly implemented the end result should be a reduction in operating costs, improved efficiencies, better alignment with your suppliers, and supply chain resiliency. Here are four ways CME Corp can help.

With healthcare equipment prices rising and lead times remaining long, there does not seem to be much light at the end of the tunnel. There are some glimmers of hope that things are improving, and that relief is on the way! The three key issues contributing to the supply chain issues are raw materials/component shortages, transportation/freight breakdowns, and labor shortages. All three have contributed to the price spikes and volatility in the industry.

The Covid-19 pandemic has certainly wreaked havoc on the healthcare equipment supply chain by increasing lead times, prices, and freight costs. Prior to the pandemic CME Corp recorded lead times for equipment between three and eight weeks on average. This week, lead times reached 12-20 weeks on average, more than tripling since the onset of the pandemic. Most industry leaders are expecting the supply chain to start to recover by the end 2022. What effect might the Ukraine-Russia War have on this recovery? It is still too early to tell what the long-term effects might be but there are already problems starting to surface. Here are three areas to watch:

The COVID-19 pandemic has continued to cripple the healthcare equipment supply chain. Raw materials such as steel, chrome, aluminum, plastic, and electronic parts are scarce, demand is high, and global transportation is bottlenecked all along the supply chain. Add a shortage of workers in the factories, at the docks, at rail yards, trucking companies, within healthcare systems, and you’ve encountered the perfect storm.

We are seeing lead times on some items increase to five and six months. These longer lead times delay the opening of crucial new medical facilities, and they also hamper healthcare systems’ financial recoveries from the pandemic.

Here are four ways CME Corp can assist you in getting your equipment on-time:

With the multitude of tasks required in supply chain management, defining processes that are efficient and cost effective is important to ensure that you act in the best interests of both your own organization and that of your customers.  Since materials management and purchasing exist in all fields of business, best practices tend to be germane to all industries, but there are some that are more specific to given industries, including healthcare.  

As healthcare supply chains struggle to meet product demands during the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been one noteworthy expectation voiced to CME Corp repeatedly: Healthcare supply chains need more visibility and more accurate communication when it comes to equipment logistics.

Timely and intentional delivery of crucial medical equipment has always been a primary pillar of our industry’s stated mission, but today and into the future, supply chain members must have global visibility into the entire supply chain, from the manufacturer to the end-user, including any issues that arise along the way.

The COVID-19 pandemic intensified before many healthcare systems were able to prepare accordingly. It disrupted the supply chains, sending healthcare systems into a frenzy as they sought after the necessary equipment. If there’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s that resources go quickly when the world is scrambling for the same materials at the same time.

In the summer of 2017, CME stood at the foundation of what would become the newest 740,000 square foot New York-Presbyterian facility, the David H. Koch Center for Ambulatory Care. The facility would be home to twelve operating suites, six interventional radiology procedure rooms, and eleven endoscopic rooms. With such size and complexity, this project was just the type the CME team has come to enjoy. Of course, as Cindy Juhas recently explained to Healthcare Business Today, this type of project carries several logistical challenges. 

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In a professional setting, 97 percent of employees found that the quality of collaboration impacted the outcome of a task or project for better or for worse, according to a Salesforce Work.com study. Effective collaboration between stakeholders lays the foundation for successful projects, especially in the healthcare industry where challenges are constantly evolving, and meaningful partnerships are critical to overcoming issues.