In the latest effort to get ahead of future medical equipment shortages, U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) announced plans for the Medical and Health Stockpile Accountability Act last week, proposing a new tracking system and data sharing guidelines, and more.
While building greater resilience into the health system, Gottheimer said the legislation would also strengthen the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) and counteract shortages that have plagued medical and health supply inventories since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was completely shocking to discover at the beginning of the pandemic — when New Jersey was hit so hard and our hospitals were in desperate need of masks and ventilators — that we had no way of knowing the quantity, location, or production of these supplies,” Gottheimer said. “Like others, I sat on the phone all night long with distributors in Europe and Asia trying to get shipments of masks and ventilators. I begged my colleagues in other states to see if their hospitals had anything they could spare — an extra ventilator or a few thousand masks and gowns. Three years later, that problem still exists. We just don’t have a handle on the exact quantities of critical medical supplies and drugs that are on U.S. soil at any given time.”
Announced on a visit by Gottheimer to the medical technology manufacturer BD, the legislation would establish six measures:
- Create a national automated supply chain tracking system with near-real-time charting of the amount of critical medical and health supplies in the SNS, as well as local and private entities. This system would also provide estimates for inventory replenishment.
- Couple this application with clear guidelines for data access and use through new national data collecting and reporting standards
- Automate data feeds from health care entities and end manual reporting demands
- Annual testing of the new application
- Development of a Department of Health and Human Services program to help state, local and private health care entities develop automated vendor management systems
- Mandate safeguards for confidential and proprietary information while guaranteeing federal data collection is used only for monitoring and dynamic allocation, not inadvertently undermining competition in the marketplace
Gottheimer hopes that, armed with better information, all involved in the health planning process – from local hospitals to manufacturers and federal agencies – will be better able to address times of crisis, undermine hoarding and grant greater insights into any needs for ramping production and distribution.