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Salado, Texas. During the financial crisis of 2008, the federal government printed money to stabilize our economy. In a future large-scale disaster or catastrophic event, no amount of money will purchase critical medical supplies and pharmaceuticals that do not exist. When a sudden very large spike in demand for medical materials occurs, we will either have the lifesaving medicines and support therapies or we will not.
A recent survey from the American Hospital Association reveals very disturbing details on the number of drug shortages at hospitals all across America. Folks, these are the best of times and yet this is the reality. Imagine our plight in a large scale disaster when the demand for lifesaving medicines will be huge. I applaud the AHA for this report and I hope most earnestly that American healthcare leaders take this wake up call.
http://www.aha.org/aha/content/2011/pdf/drugshortagesurvey.pdf
Any large-scale public health emergency, natural disaster or terrorist attack will cause a sudden and profound spike in demand for both pharmaceuticals and medical surgical products. A very lean supply chain is remarkably easy to deplete if the demand is both sudden and very large. This could result in massive curtailments in healthcare operations across America and could threaten America’s entire healthcare industry.
The relatively modest surges in medical product demand during the 2009-2010 H1N1 flu season put many if not most healthcare organizations on “Allocation.” Just imagine what would occur if we face a large-scale, material intensive disaster.
HHS and CDC have not used plain language on what categories and quantities of federal supplies would and would not be available to healthcare organizations during disasters.
http://www.cdc.gov/phpr/stockpile.htm%23sns7
I’m sad to say that the language outlining the Strategic National Stockpile lends itself to a totally unwarranted sense that the federal government will back up hospitals, medical centers, surgical centers and outpatient clinics during disasters. This vague and carefully crafted language is unwise at best and may be catastrophic in the worst cases. The young, old and those with chronic illnesses will suffer the most. We should do the right thing and we should do it right now! The Federal Government should clearly state which categories of supplies, equipment and pharmaceuticals will and not be available to healthcare organizations and when and for how long healthcare organizations can count on Federal support.
The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) medical materiel depots have been effectively closed since 1992 and that safety net is gone.
I am profoundly concerned about the plight of all Americans during disasters, but especially those whose lives depend most on medication and support therapies. Many Americans can live through a persistent lack of medicines, but many lives depend on it.
Since 1999 I have advocated Federal planners purchase large quantities of critical pharmaceuticals and medical supplies and pay national distributors to manage the Federal Reserve Inventories and stock rotate the material in storage. During times of crisis, federal stocks could be quickly released and immediately flow seamlessly into the Health Care Industry’s supply chain.
This simple preparatory step can sustain medical operations, save lives and prevent untold human suffering. A modest national investment in Federal Reserve Inventories in advance of a catastrophic event may also obviate the need to rebuild the Healthcare Industry requiring appalling sums of money and time many Americans simply won’t have.
It is very late morning in America and I hope healthcare leaders will answer this very sincere wake up call. There is no snooze button.
Mr. Rush is an innovator in the fields of Leadership, Team Building, Healthcare Supply Chain and Disaster Readiness. He is a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) and the Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management (AHRMM). Jim has over 30 years of healthcare administration and community emergency management experience in the US Armed Force, Federal Public Health, and in urban medical centers and community hospitals in the civilian healthcare industry.
As an Air Force Medical Service Corps Officer, Jim was the US Air Force’s Middle East Regional Chief of Medical Logistics, stationed at the Medical Center at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey. He was also responsible for three clinics, nineteen medical aid stations, an Air Transportable Hospital and other wartime and contingency assets in Turkey. After that assignment, he was promoted to the position of War Reserve Materiel Officer with the US Air Forces Europe (USAFE), Surgeon General’s staff. He managed $150 Million yearly budget for procurement of mobile hospitals and clinics, blood donor and transshipment centers and all other medical war reserve assets pre-positioned at 15 Air Base Hospitals across Europe. He was also responsible for reopening a previously shuttered German hospital and commissioning it as the first Air Force 500-Bed wartime hospital.
After serving his commitment in the Air Force, Mr. Rush served the United States Army Medical Materiel Center, Europe (USAMMCE) as the European Theater of Operations Chief, Medical Reserve Materiel, managing a stockpile of $267 Million of medical supply requirements for chemical, biological, radiological and conventional casualties. He also managed pre-designated sets of medical supplies and equipment required to support 18 Operational Projects for Special Forces units and other European units during special deployments.
Mr. Rush retired from Public Service after serving as Health Resources and Services Administration’s Region 3 Project Officer for the National Bioterrorism Hospital Preparedness Program (HPP). Prior to that, Jim served the CDC as the first Logistics Manager of the National Pharmaceutical Stockpile, forerunner of the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS).
Publications: Jim has authored a publication for the American Hospital Association titled the “Disaster Preparedness Manual for Healthcare Materials Management Professionals”. Mr. Rush has also co-authored the “Recommended Practice, Disaster Readiness and Recovery” for the American Society for Healthcare Environmental Services (ASHES). He has had professional papers published in the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) newsletter with worldwide circulation. Excerpts of his web page article “Acquiring Disaster Related Supplies” were published by the “Materials Management in Healthcare Magazine,” a joint publication of the American Hospital Association (AHA) and the Association of Healthcare Resources and Materials Management (AHRMM). He is also a regular contributing author for “Big Medicine” an on-line weekly publication dedicated to the Emergency Management Community.
Most recently, Mr. Rush Co-authored “Unprepared,” a fictional but plausible story of the likely consequences of two nuclear bomb detonations in major American population centers. The story details the profound affects a catastrophic event would have on healthcare systems and available inventories and thus, the American Healthcare Industry for years to come.
EDUCATION:
Bachelor's Degree. 1973, Public Administration, Major, Healthcare Administration, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
Professional Certificate in Information Systems (University of Southern California): 1989. Database Management, Decision Support Systems and Artificial Intelligence, High Speed Communications Systems. (9 post graduate credit hours)
Professional Certificate: Decision Risk Analysis for Logisticians, United States Army Logistics Management College, 24 June, 1988 (1 post graduate credit hour)
The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.
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