The Risk/Resiliency Supply Chain Balance: From the Desk of the CEO

The benefits of bringing manufacturing closer to home was one of seven healthcare supply chain themes addressed in a white paper recently published by the Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management of the American Hospital Association. It’s a focus shared by healthcare providers across the country who felt the crippling impact of overreliance on foreign manufacturers to supply so much of the desperately needed personal protective equipment (PPE) in the fight against COVID-19.

After reflecting and realigning from experiences over the past year, HealthTrust and providers have shifted to meet emergent needs of healthcare workers and their patients with enhanced measures to protect supply chain stability for mission-critical products and services. This includes more dynamic risk assessments centered on diversification and risk mitigation throughout the supply chain, including the use of vertically integrated suppliers, domestic or near-shore solutions, and suppliers with multiple and redundant supply chain safeguards.

An A-plus partnership

As shared in the Q1 edition, HealthTrust will co-manage a new joint-venture (JV) partnership to domestically produce level 1 and level 3 masks for the U.S. market. We are proud to announce A Plus International, Inc., as the manufacturing partner and co-manager with HealthTrust of the JV, headquartered in North Carolina. HealthTrust’s subsidiary Resource Optimization & Innovation, LLC, (ROi) will serve as the primary distribution partner.

This JV is just one of many opportunities to support a more secure supply chain and put the focus of healthcare back on patient outcomes versus industry constraints. HealthTrust will continue to contract with other suppliers to ensure member organizations have a diverse portfolio of PPE options to meet their needs.

Options from ROi’s Regard

Early in the pandemic, ROi, with its Regard brand of products, secured inventories of products to assist HealthTrust members with PPE, including surgical and procedural masks, N95 respirators, face shields, ear savers, and cover and isolation gowns. ROi’s Regard portfolio is

not just PPE, however; it includes 500-plus products, all of which meet the technical and regulatory requirements for quality and safety, including registration with the Food and Drug Administration, where required.

Also available to HealthTrust members are the Regard Clinical Packaging Solutions from HealthTrust subsidiary ROi CPS, LLC, offering customized surgical packs tailored specifically for clinical end users. For more information on these products and services, contact your HealthTrust Account Director.

Ed Jones
President/CEO, HealthTrust
Publisher, The Source magazine

Visit the “News” section of the HealthTrust website to read press releases about the JV partnership (January 2021) and the acquisition of ROi (October 2019).