An unprecedented strain on American healthcare systems is expected to worsen.
ori Lee spends a lot of time trying to keep Connecticut’s largest health system stocked with medical supplies from IV lines to gauze bandages. It’s a job that’s gotten increasingly harder as unprecedented snarls have tied the supply chain in knots.
The U.S. healthcare system is facing supply shortages that dwarf the problems experienced in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, when needed personal protective equipment, like masks and gowns, was nearly impossible to come by. Back then, shortages might have been more urgent, but today’s problems include a much wider array of equipment. They can be traced to component scarcities, backlogged ports, transportation glitches and lockdowns in China to combat the spread of Covid-19.
Some shortages are directly related to the pandemic. Efforts at mass vaccination, for example, strained inventories of syringes and needles. Others are due to the closures in China. Those shutdowns have yet to fully work their way through the supply chain for medical products and supplies, meaning that constrained supplies could get worse this summer, especially if the lockdowns drag on.
It’s not just medical supplies. There are similar longstanding problems with pharmaceuticals, many of which rely on key ingredients from Asia. Anesthesia medications, antibiotics, pain medications, nutrition and electrolyte products and chemotherapy agents are frequently in shortage, according toThe burgeoning number of electronic devices in healthcare has left items including defibrillators and imaging machines vulnerable to the same supply shocks as consumer electronic devices.
China’s shutdowns have a lag time of 45 to 90 days before their effects show up in the U.S., so Jochims figures that supply-chain challenges will continue well into 2023. Meanwhile, costs go up for components, for transportation and even for warehouses, where traditional suppliers now face competition from Amazon and other ecommerce players, which could lead to inflation over the long term.
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