US Hospitals Join Online Platform to Procure Coronavirus Equipment

Medical equipment shortages in the US have become so acute during the coronavirus outbreak that hundreds of hospitals have joined an online bartering platform to swap supplies directly with each other rather than buy them on the open market.

Covid-19 has overwhelmed the country’s healthcare systems, leaving many hospitals with an urgent need for ventilators and personal protective equipment. But in areas that have not been hit hard by the virus, some healthcare providers have an abundance of such products but lack the means — or incentive — to distribute them.

A collaboration between Stanford Medicine, healthcare procurement group Premier and supply chain intelligence start-up Resilinc is aiming to solve this problem by launching The Exchange, an online platform where hospitals can interact with peers to locate and trade critical medical items.

More than 300 hospitals registered to join The Exchange within days of the partners hosting a March 25 webinar explaining how it would work. Resilinc, which believes it will have 2,000 signed up by the end of this month, plans to launch the US platform in mid-April and roll it out globally by June.

Chaun Powell, who runs the supplier engagement team at Premier, which buys and manages supplies for more than 4,000 hospitals, said the system was facing “unprecedented levels of burden."

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