Ensuring you're getting the best prices on medical supplies
Physician's Purchasing
Personal Protective Equipment shortage (PPE)?
As you know, much of the world's personal protective equipment (PPE) is manufactured in Asia, and we simply cannot get as much product as we would like. We are doing everything we can to procure product from existing sources and to find alternate sources of supply. To extend our inventory, we are distributing product as equitably as possible by rationing shipments of product to existing customers only. This is a global policy. Regional variation in availability is also likely during this period. At this point in time, all of our facilities are open except two small locations.
What is the current outlook for the availability of restricted products?
Allocation systems by their nature are imperfect, and we are working intensely to refine our system to more equitably serve customers. In the meantime, we wanted to provide our outlook as of today for the products currently experiencing the tightest supply—masks, gloves, sanitizer, and gowns.
Masks: Currently the most sought-after item, we anticipate elevated demand for months to come, although we expect that our supply chain is likely to begin to loosen in the weeks ahead. Even so, we expect shortages to persist.
Gloves: Demand has surged in recent days. The supply chain for gloves is more stable than masks, and we don't expect the same degree of pressure.
Sanitizer: Demand has increased during the last several weeks and we expect there may be disruptions, which is why are currently rationing supply.
Gowns: In the shortest supply because of a significant manufacturer's product recall before the COVID-19 outbreak.
We don't expect this shortage to materially change in the near term, and we may periodically run out of certain items in the weeks ahead. We are working with urgency to prevent this.