Miami-based Baptist Health South Florida, an 11-hospital system, has never run out of personal protective equipment during the state's COVID-19 pandemic, in part, it said, because of its consolidated distribution services center. The health system offered details about its supply chain center in an Oct. 8 blog post.
Five things to know:
- The health system opened its supply chain center in Doral, Fla., in 2014 as a way to centralize its operations and leverage its buying power with its vendors.
- A team of 85 employees oversees procurement, inventory and distribution of supplies at the center.
- The 152,000-square-foot warehouse has more than 5,000 items in its inventory worth more than $26 million.
- "Pickers" on the team select the items requested by supply chain officials in each hospital. On busy days, pickers walk 18 miles or more. Drivers in the delivery trucks and vans log more than 1,800 miles a day.
- The priorities for the team changed in March when COVID-19 spread across the U.S. and many hospitals and health systems were struggling to ensure they had sufficient personal protective equipment and other supplies.
"Our role was essential to ensuring that every COVID patient had what they need and that our clinical staff had adequate supplies of gloves, N95 masks, face shields and gowns," said Anderson Tavares, manager of operations, distribution and logistics at the center.
By using its centralized distribution center and acting early during the pandemic, Baptist Health South Florida ensured it never ran out of PPE, the health system stated.
Read the full blog post here.