ECRI’s tool helps health systems identify products affected by tariffs and find safe, functionally equivalent alternatives to maintain supply continuity.
ECRI launched a new country of origin data insights tool to provide transparency and decision support for eligible clients navigating the impacts of tariffs. The Supply Chain Navigator is designed to equip healthcare leaders to make strategic purchasing decisions to achieve continuity of care in an uncertain market.
More than 4,000 health system supply chain teams leverage ECRI’s datasets. Many of those teams reported to ECRI they’re concerned about how tariffs will impact pricing and availability of critical personal protection equipment (PPE) from China, like face masks, gloves, and isolation gowns. ECRI’s new insights are designed to alleviate that concern and pave the way for other targeted insights as additional supply disruptions emerge.
“Together we are ensuring health systems can continue securing supplies that are critical for their patients and workforce without interruption and without paying needlessly high prices or compromising on safety,” says Stuart Morris-Hipkins, chief solutions officer at ECRI, in a release. “Our datasets allow us to pinpoint where clients’ current products are manufactured and isolate those impacted by tariffs to identify safe alternatives that are functionally equivalent.”
Pinpointing Where Supplies and Devices are Manufactured
Historically it has been a challenge to pinpoint, at scale, exactly where medical supplies and devices are manufactured, since it’s common for individual parts to originate from plants around the world and to be assembled at different locations. That is known as “country of origin” data, which hasn’t been readily available in the past, adding another layer of complexity to navigating tariffs. The new insights tackle this perennial problem in supply chain management by providing a curated view of country of origin, customized to certain origin sources and product categories with an emphasis on PPE.
“We’re now able to show our partners their level of risk and exposure in key product categories based on the tariffs,” says Alison Maguire, ECRI’s vice president of sales, Americas, in a release. “We also flag supplies that have been identified as hazardous or subject to a recall or lengthy backorders. We then create a mitigation plan that shifts their procurement strategies in real-time.”
Morris-Hipkins adds, “The tariffs are adding volatility to an already vulnerable healthcare supply chain. It’s not just a business issue—it’s a patient safety issue. History has proven, from the COVID-19 pandemic to natural disasters that disrupted the supply chain, instability often forces healthcare providers to turn to unvetted or unsafe sources for supplies. We are actively working with our partners to build greater resilience into their sourcing strategies to ensure uninterrupted, safe care.”
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