HIDA shares takeaways from its 4th Supply Chain Visibility Conference; suggestions include adopting standards for reporting and formatting for supply chain visibility, using collaboration to navigate challenges like transportation delays, worker shortages

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia , March 8, 2022 (press release) –

The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified the critical need for excellent end-to-end supply chain visibility, industry leaders agreed during the Health Industry Distributors Association’s 4th annual Supply Chain Visibility Conference.

More than 60 healthcare supply chain experts from 34 organizations — including health systems, GPOs, manufacturers, distributors, and government partners — discussed best practices and shared learnings from the public health emergency.

7 Key Takeaways:

• Building trust with trading partners is a cornerstone of sharing information and communicating effectively.
• Collaboration among supply chain stakeholders will help the nation navigate out of pandemic-induced challenges such as transportation delays and worker shortages.
• Talent within the healthcare supply chain must be encouraged and cultivated.
• Data sharing creates an integrated supply chain, builds stronger partnerships, and enables scalability.
• Visibility begins with a product’s raw materials and country of origin and ends with the patient.
• Visibility depends on trading partners’ adoption of standards for reporting and formatting.
• Allocation is a powerful tool that must be supported by clear communication between trading partners, upstream and downstream.

The Supply Chain Visibility Conference resulted from the work of HIDA’s Healthcare Supply Chain Collaborative. The Collaborative addresses end-to-end supply chain challenges including supply chain resilience, pricing accuracy, and product information management, and works to advance best practices for processes and data. Learn more about the 2023 Supply Chain Visibility Conference and its sister event, the Contract Administration Conference. For more information about the Collaborative, contact Manpreet Kaur Sandhu.

About HIDA
The Health Industry Distributors Association (HIDA) represents the country’s medical product distributors — the nation’s essential link between manufacturers and patient caregivers. HIDA members offer critical services increasing the efficiency of U.S. healthcare providers, including hospitals, nursing homes, laboratories, home care, and physician practices. For more information, visit HIDA.org.

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