Cathy Denning

Group senior vice president of sourcing operations

Vizient

ON CHANGING UP THE SUPPLY CHAIN:

Who would have known that the swabs we are using to do the COVID-19 testing in the nasopharyngeal cavity were predominantly made in the Lombardy region in Italy? And what was the epicenter of the European COVID-19 epidemic? It was the Lombardy region. That virtually shut down manufacturing of those products, causing a global issue. Coming out of this, one of the things that we will advocate for through our bid process is expecting suppliers to be transparent, but also working with federal agencies that have some sway, asking suppliers to, as part of their regulatory requirements, be transparent about where products are made, where the raw materials come from, and how many stops does a product take between the place that it’s finished and the time it gets to the member dock. Everyone in their emotions believes that onshoring manufacturing is the only solution, and quite truthfully, we couldn’t do that if we wanted to. We don’t have the manufacturing capacity.