With the UN recently revealing its landmark IPCC report on climate change, there is a renewed call for leaders in every sector to act responsibly to help address the climate crisis. The healthcare sector is no exception and with COVID-19 generating more medical waste than ever (e.g., disposable PPE), there is mounting pressure for the global healthcare supply chain to step up its efforts to become more sustainable.
Sustainable Healthcare Products
Of course, amid a pandemic or other dramatic increase in demand, health systems must acquire more supplies to deliver care. The unprecedented spike in demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) seen during COVID-19 is just one example. But the exponential increase in the use of plastics (a core ingredient for many forms of disposable PPE) shows how a health crisis can result in the unintended reversal of sustainability practices, ultimately increasing waste.
While it is undeniable that demand will shift during a global health crisis, the healthcare industry needs to be more judicious in its use of products. For example, one study found that if the healthcare industry were to convert to reusable gowns, it could see 28% lower natural resources consumption, 41% less blue water consumed and 93% less solid waste generation.
The healthcare supply chain can support global sustainability efforts by making some adjustments to common industry practices – and this work is already underway. For example, historically, clinicians have preferred disposable to reusable isolation gowns. To overcome this, some hospital supply chain leaders are collaborating with clinicians and local manufacturers to design reusable gowns that are both more user friendly and environmentally sustainable. At its core, an efficient and effective supply chain aims to ensure the right resources are available, when and where they are most needed. However, there is no reason why we can’t ensure the products being provided are also sustainable and ethically sourced, while reducing waste.
The Role of Data and Automation
While widespread use of reusable PPE could still be years away, one way to improve sustainability by reducing waste right now is through technology. Thanks to improved data collection and automated processes, inventory can be managed more effectively across the supply chain and seamlessly implemented within existing operations and systems.
By better understanding inventory levels and usage, supply chain leaders can better align purchasing and inventory to demand and reduce the amount of product that expires before it is used. Investment in inventory management to document product utilization also has additional benefits, from preventing an expired or recalled product from being used in patient care to supporting case cost accounting. Further, automated stock replenishment reduces manual work, allowing healthcare workers to spend more time on patient care, and ensuring products are available when needed. With such tools, frontline staff are equipped with handheld scanners to digitally record when materials are used – from PPE to higher-grade consumables such as implantable devices. This information is then transmitted wirelessly to a centralized digital database. This allows for an automatically generated report to ensure patient records are accurate and inventory records are up to date, facilitating more accurate replenishment cycles. As a result, hospitals and trusts can deliver better results for their patients while keeping their bottom lines healthy.
The pandemic accentuated the importance of data’s role in healthcare and now procurement teams need to continue focusing on collecting, maintaining and properly analysing reliable, reproducible, and secure data. The more accessible, accurate and real-time data and insights become, the better the results, leading to faster and more accurate decision-making, reduced waste, lower costs and an improved standard of care.
Sharpening Supply Chain Visibility
Another critical factor in improving the healthcare supply chain’s sustainability is providing greater visibility across the entire end-to-end supply chain, from point of manufacture through to patient care. By gathering data from providers and suppliers – and sharing data between parties, we can better understand how to optimise the system and uncover the unintended consequences of certain decisions on our environment so they may be avoided in future. By sharing data, trading partners can work collaboratively to understand demand and address supply shortages. In order to support best practices such as collaborative planning, planning and forecasting, all parties should use the same standard identifiers, such as Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs), to ensure everyone is identifying products in the same way. This is also a key foundation to enabling more supply chain and inventory management automation and minimize manual and often error prone work.
Thanks to sharpened supply chain visibility, suppliers and providers are able to address potential problems in real time with increased agility to ensure accurate decision-making and reduced waste. By enabling providers and suppliers to view information on existing inventory levels and consumption in real-time, they can understand when goods will arrive, and take steps if necessary to find alternate products due to backorders. This increased visibility into complex supply chains translates to fewer disruptions, increased customer satisfaction and lower costs overall.
Better leveraging data and improving end-to-end visibility are initial steps healthcare can take to improve sustainability in the near-term, but there are opportunities to affect positive change for the long-term. For instance, integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation-driven initiatives such as the integration of real-time stock tracking through handheld scanners could be the next logical step for hospitals looking to avoid unforeseen shortages thanks to the ease of implementation. The use of AI and automation can also help power predictive analytics within the healthcare supply chain, using historic and real time data to better understand where and when there will be spikes in demand for PPE, for example, may occur. This information can be used to alert manufacturers to a potential increase in demand before it occurs and, in some advanced cases, automating manufacturing and procurement processes to seamlessly increase the amount of materials being created and ordered. In a nutshell, predictive analytics can take the data and automated processes and use them to ensure the risk of demand outstripping supply can be mitigated without generating excessive waste.
As we begin to emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic, now is the time to reconsider how the healthcare supply chain is structured and supported technologically. This requires understanding the total impact of a product from production to use and giving more consideration to how increased demand for products can lead to more waste if they can’t be reused safely and effectively. Supply chain and logistics professionals should look to data, automation and AI technologies to help facilitate sourcing sustainable products and ensuring these products are available in sufficient quantities, when and where they are most needed.
By Karen Conway, vice president, Healthcare Value, Global Healthcare Exchange (GHX)