Distribution of critical medical inventory

Understanding the critical need to help front-line healthcare workers safely care for patients across the globe, and in the face of unprecedented demand for certain medical supplies, we are doing everything we can to manage and maintain supply to help meet that need. This is an evolving situation, and we are working closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to optimize our nationwide network, prioritizing the identified “hotspots” in the U.S.

We are managing manufacturing and distribution of critical inventory for more than 100,000 medical products in unprecedented demand. The COVID-19 pandemic is creating industry-wide challenges, including expected delays in inventory replenishment for certain products. We are experiencing backorders and declining inventory levels for certain medical products at rates never experienced before. As a result, customers may experience partial shipments and backorders and, in some instances, products will be out of stock. Local Cardinal Health representatives will continue to keep customers updated on inventory for specific facilities.

With the inventory constraints the industry is experiencing, we know the challenge of resuming procedures is significant. Therefore, as healthcare providers begin to resume procedures, we understand the need for a longer-term view of available supply. In fact, providing our customers with greater supply chain transparency is a core focus of our distribution business strategy.

We are developing a Predictive Supply Health solution that will provide customers a view of pending supply health for Cardinal Health™ brand products, which is specific to each customers’ product mix and utilization. This information will help customers proactively prepare for upcoming supply constraints or supply normality to support procedural volume or pandemic preparedness.  In parallel, we will continue gathering and sharing supply information from our other supplier partners as much as possible.

We also are providing several resources to help inform how facilities resume procedures.

For all products that move through our channel, we are proactively:

• Utilizing data and analytics to determine demand trends while also monitoring daily inventory health through frequent discussions with product suppliers to understand potential constraints
• Increasing manufacturing shifts and over-time, so that we can increase inventory levels for products with existing or expected demand spikes
• Collaborating with U.S. and foreign trade authorities to expedite shipments and shorten lead times
• Exploring new supply channels, including partnerships with suppliers outside of the healthcare industry