Strategic national stockpile5/7/2023 When it became clear that there were significant shortages of new essentials and that pandemic-related factory closures would make it difficult to produce more supplies, the federal government stepped in, using its significant purchasing power to attempt to clear some of the backlogs. Data for personal protective equipment (PPE), ventilators, and ICU beds were incomplete. Going forward, the lessons HHS learned during the pandemic provide a roadmap for creating an SNS that is positioned to handle novel threats, rather than optimizing for emergencies that have already passed.īuild Strategic Visibility Into National Stockpiles and Supply ChainsĪt the start of the pandemic, neither the federal government nor states had clear visibility into the supplies that were needed or available to respond to the pandemic. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) responded as best they could to fulfill a mission they weren’t designed to manage at such scale. For instance, neither states nor the federal government had sufficient visibility into each other’s stockpiles or supply chains, novel pandemic scenarios were inadequately analyzed and prepared for, and the initial response to the pandemic was not managed in a way that maximized collab oration and resources. However, the early stages of the pandemic revealed some significant response gaps. To the public, the SNS appeared to be well-positioned to respond to an emergency like COVID-19. The SNS holds medical supplies and equipment for state and local governments to tap during public health emergencies. After the pandemic hit, it allocated about $5.5 billion for those supplies using relief funds.At the onset of the pandemic, the nation became aware of a resource few had previously heard of: The Strategic National Stockpile (SNS). The pandemic was a catalyst for the GAO to reassess current stockpile procedures, according to the agency.īeyond adding more ventilators and personal protective equipment, the HHS also added testing supplies including nasal swabs and transfer media, which it hadn’t stocked prior to the pandemic.įrom 2015 through 2019, the HHS allocated about $33 million for ventilators, and allocated no more than $1 million for PPE for the stockpile. The HHS concurred with the GAO’s recommendations.įinding a balance between maintaining a stockpile of resources to combat low-probability, high-impact threats like anthrax while building up inventories of supplies to battle emerging infectious diseases, like COVID-19, was a challenge during the pandemic, the report said. In order to better inform inventory decisions and funding allocations from Congress, the agency needs to develop and document an approach outlining how it regularly manages the risks associated with inventory level gaps and recommended quantities, while tracking progress and estimating resources needed, the report said. Until the HHS updates its procedures, it risks lapsing on statutory requirements that were designed to give Congress information about the supply inventory, the report said. Annual reviews were not completed to make inventory decisions for fiscal years 2020 through 2022, and the agency relied on past reviews and its own discretion to inform inventory decisions.Īlthough the HHS has now completed reviews to inform inventory decisions for fiscal years 20, the reviews didn’t meet most statutory requirements, because the agency did not update its procedures to account for changes enacted in 2019 under the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness and Advancing Innovation Act, according to the report. In 2019, the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response suspended its annual stockpile review process, which it uses to make inventory recommendations, for three years when an expert group used to assist the reviews went through a reorganization. In fiscal years 20, $6.1 billion in COVID-19 relief funds was allocated for spending on stockpile supplies in the midst of the shortage, compared to nearly $5 billion allocated from 2015 to 2021 in total on non-coronavirus related supplies.īut the HHS stockpile reviews, which the agency employs to make inventory decisions, are insufficient and hampering its ability to ensure the stockpile has adequate resources and quantities to combat future public health emergencies, the GAO report found. The COVID-19 pandemic brought a heightened awareness to the national stockpile, as supply chain challenges caused shortages of ventilators, personal protective equipment and other resources across hospitals and health systems. The warehouses, originally created by the federal government in 1999 to combat chemical or biological attacks, are strategically placed throughout the country. The national stockpile is held in an undisclosed number of government warehouses, filled with pharmaceutical drugs and other medical supplies in case a public health emergency causes local supplies to run out.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |