Cynthia Hughes, BSN, RN, service line director of cardiology supply chain at Irving, Texas-based Christus Health, discussed the biggest challenges of managing a cardiology supply chain during a recent episode of the Becker's Healthcare cardiology podcast.
Here is an excerpt from the podcast. Click here to download the full episode.
Editor's note: This response was lightly edited for length and clarity.
Question: What are the biggest challenges that you're facing today?
Cynthia Hughes: We cover New Mexico, all of Texas and Louisiana, so our patient populations are so different based on the region they are physically located. One facility may have a greater emphasis on vascular issues, such as structural heart issues or preventive issues, if heart disease isn't as prevalent in that specific area.
One of the biggest challenges I was facing is that we weren't able to travel because of the pandemic. We actually just opened up that opportunity. For the last month, we've been able to go out and start working with the facilities. It's so much better when we can get into the facility, work with the leaders face to face, and identify and work through some of their challenges that they're facing locally.
We also want to make sure that our front-line staff have the [personal protective equipment] that they require in order to care for the patients to the best of their ability. And we want a safe environment for our patients, staff and physicians. And we want to ensure that we are doing our due diligence and we have open doors so that patients who are having signs and symptoms of cardiac disease, or have a history of cardiac disease, can get taken care of responsibly.