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.

As a first step, we have created a Supply & Demand Dashboard, which shows customers the product received based on historical orders. This provides a baseline understanding of the last 30-90 days of supply fulfillment. We also have a planning tool that models our customers’ new “normal,” or adjusted demand for PPE alongside the available supply of these products, to provide guidance to customers for product selection and case schedule planning. To inform this model, we are gathering insights from health systems, as well as from federal and state government, industry partners and trade associations.

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