When disaster strikes, you can count on the healthcare supply chain to be as resilient as the communities it is designed to serve. Through Healthcare Ready’s vast partnership network of pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors, healthcare providers, and local, state and federal officials, the supply chain’s ability to anticipate and react to disasters has never been more efficient and effective. 

What is the healthcare supply chain and how does it work?

In essence, the healthcare supply chain is an extensive network of systems, components, and processes that collectively make up the network we call “the” supply chain. The supply chain is the process by which medicines and other healthcare supplies are manufactured, distributed, and provided to patients. This complex, global system is established with ample built-in protections to ensure that medical supplies are manufactured and delivered to those who need them, no matter how severe the disaster. The most vital of these protections is the supply chain’s ability to predict, plan, and react to potential disruptions in one or more links of the chain through a diverse pre-established global network.

Healthcare supply chains take a great deal of time and effort to construct. Over decades, biopharmaceutical manufacturers painstakingly assembled substantial global chains to ensure that if one area or link of the chain is compromised, another can fill the gap. Healthcare Ready takes great pride in our mission of supporting and strengthening healthcare supply chains and the communities and patients they serve. 

Designed to bend, but not break

An important aspect of successful healthcare supply chain design is the ability to prepare for likely pressures. For example, regions with a higher propensity for flooding or hurricane damage will have pre-established stockpiles of supplies, or increase production levels early in the year for necessary medical resources to quickly disseminate should such a disaster occur. 

However, the timing of other disasters, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, is nearly impossible to predict. To combat such instances, partners within the healthcare supply chain invest heavily in the design, maintenance, and modernization of facilities, their respective quality systems, and alternative distribution methods. Through diligent planning and wise investment, these efforts have been successful in limiting major disruptions in the global healthcare supply chain due to COVID-19. 

It is truly is amazing what can be done when dedicated people from all walks of healthcare, manufacturing, government, and more come together to help form each link of the chain. See how it all works here: