NYC Health + Hospitals' Danielle DiBari, PharmD, and the system's supply team are working to establish a Diverse Supplier Council to cement equity throughout the hospital supply chain.
The council is building off the New York City-based system's success with minority- and women-owned supply company partnerships, according to a recent article in The Journal of Healthcare Contracting.
Dr. DiBari is the senior vice president of business operations and chief pharmacy officer. Since starting in this role in January 2020, Dr. DiBari has helped the system increase contract spend with minority- and women-owned vendors to more than 30%. In 2019, this figure was 5%, according to NYC Health + Hospitals.
For The Journal of Healthcare Contracting, she listed two concerns for the future hospital supply chain:
1. "One of the greatest difficulties facing healthcare supply chain teams today is ensuring organizational resilience in the face of unexpected disruptions," Dr. DiBari said. "The ability to strike the delicate balance between preparedness and fiscal responsibility is a necessity for an organization's success. It's become more and more challenging as the availability of raw materials, the products themselves, and even the ability to transport them, is interrupted."
2. The rapid releases of new developments in medical supplies require hospital supply leaders to remain nimble, she said.
"These rapid advances in medical technology and therapies are creating new and unexpected challenges to supply chain efficiency in many forms — specialized storage and shipping requirements, hidden costs, or additional regulatory and compliance requirements — to name a few," Dr. DiBari said. "This added pressure requires organizations and their supply chain teams to have a new type of agility and to stay current with evolving industry standards while solving these novel problems and continuing to maintain accuracy."