Bridging the gaps in healthcare supply chains

The past twelve months have seen a significant acceleration in technology adoption across the many parts of healthcare in Australia. The wide adoption of telehealth, increased use of health consumer ‘apps’, more data flowing into MyHealthRecord and the introduction of electronic prescriptions are just some of the achievements where technology has played a key role in evolving how care is provided and managed.

But what technology improvements in the supply chain underpin the delivery of care?

Part of the original national eHealth program included work within the supply chain to move it towards a nationally harmonious, digitally enabled part of the Australian health ecosystem. Although the program delivered some of the much-needed tools, they were well ahead of the maturity of many sector stakeholders. Whilst the focus continued on the necessary digitisation across the healthcare system more broadly, the supply chain has lingered in the shadows, largely manual in many aspects and is sadly disconnected from the strategic digital vision for the sector and has no national program to guide and hasten the needed changes.

Why does the healthcare supply chain matter to all of us?

No Australian healthcare organisations have made it through the past year without having issues of some kind with availability and the supply of products, and ensuring availability where and when needed. Beyond the individual organisations who were managing their challenges, was the added need to suddenly compete with the federal government who also started to source products, and in many cases wiped out all available stocks. Although contracts were mostly in place, at least for public health jurisdictions, the past year has been littered with significant product shortages, enormous freight charges and the frantic sourcing of alternate products — in some cases without the same rigour. Amongst the challenges faced by the supply chain teams was the need to urgently redeploy products from around the country to the eastern states, which were severely impacted by COVID outbreaks, so that they were able to treat patients and protect their staff.

Roll forward to today, one of the most complex and critical supply chains of our time is in operation to manage the COVID vaccines, diluents and necessary consumables for administration. To support this process, it has been necessary to develop technologies and facilitate a significant uplift in capability to manage the capturing of the product identification, maintain visibility of inventory and have some elements of traceability within the chain through to administration to those receiving the vaccines.

There are ongoing shortages of some products, including another recent incidence where federal initiatives wiped out stocks of some products that were forecast for state use. Not only is greater collaboration needed, but the time has come for a renewed strategic national approach to digitising the healthcare supply chain in Australia and its health services.

Are we alone in Australia?

The short answer is no. Studies from other parts of the world have revealed that other countries are also struggling with the lack of data, no true visibility of what products they have available in-country, overwhelmingly manual processes, issues with surge demand and little, if any, infrastructure in place to ensure traceability and visibility across the country. The ‘fragile healthcare supply chains’ and challenges outlined in a recent study in Canada* are indeed similar to those of Australia. The World Health Organization, and partners within the COVAX global initiative, also continue to call out the need for improved supply chain processes.

If this needs a national approach, what can individual organisations do?

Regardless of whether there is a national digital supply chain framework that returns to help guide what needs to be done, the investment and programs at a state, organisational and local level still need to commence to properly understand the current state and true gaps that exist. Given that so many processes are largely manual, without readily available information, and still missing standardised identification to ensure interoperable data, addressing these factors is an obvious starting point. We need supply chain standards capable technology platforms and to invest in simple items such as 2D barcode scanners to help capture some of the data that provides the traceability and visibility of products across the ecosystem. We need to implement data exchange mechanisms across the supply chain to ensure that data supports product movement and critical events and that the security within the supply chain and accuracy extends to the patient or consumer.

We need to balance the investment in greater sovereign manufacturing capability and overall productivity and investment in technology improvements in areas such as the approval and regulation of products. Hopefully we will also see leadership and focus on operational limitations and how to support the acceleration of technology and foundations of global data standards across this important part of the sector.

About GS1 Healthcare

GS1 Australia is a non-profit, global data standards organisation specialising in supply chain standards that enable visibility and traceability across and within healthcare around the world. Our work supports the adoption and implementation of interoperable global data standards within the Australian healthcare sector to enhance patient safety, and operational and supply chain efficiencies.

For more information about GS1 standards in Australian healthcare, visit the GS1 Australia website www.gs1au.org/healthcare and follow us on Twitter gs1au_health and LinkedIn gs1-australia.

*https://www.longwoods.com/content/26415/healthcare-quarterly/key-characteristics-of-a-fragile-healthcare-supply-chain-learning-from-a-pandemic?_cldee=bWFyaWFuLm1ha3JhbS1wZXJraW5zQGdzMWF1Lm9yZw%3d%3d&recipientid=contact-2b63f51ba0dde811a862000d3ad117e3-f94cca002b214b5eafd94b6f2652c0f5&esid=28573d08-f281-eb11-a812-000d3a6a20cc.

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