Embracing the principle of heroic intervention
First of three parts
Semper Paratus is the proud motto of the U. S. Coast Guard. It is a Latin phrase that translated to English, means “Always Ready,” which is not surprising for an organization whose mission is to protect our maritime borders, enforce maritime laws and respond to natural emergencies. Given the nature of its charge, it is reasonable to believe that a great amount of time would be spent on scenario analysis and trying to imagine and plan for the unimaginable. After all, “Always Ready” is inferred to mean “Always Ready for whatever might happen.”
Historically, the organization always has been prepared, performing heroically and effectively year after year, crisis after crisis.
In an article posted on the news and opinion website Vox, on March 26, 2018, authors Umair Infran and Brian Resnick wrote:
“It’s official: 2017 was the costliest year on record for natural disasters in the United States, with a price tag of at least $306 billion.
“The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which tracks billion-dollar disasters, reported in January that the record total came from 16 separate events with damages exceeding $1 billion.
“If that seems shocking, consider some of the record-breaking weather events that came our way:
- California was drenched in the wettest winter on record, ending years of drought.
- Then came California’s most destructive and largest wildfire season ever. The Tubbs Fire in Northern California killed 22 people and damaged more than 5,600 structures.
- Hurricane Harvey broke a rainfall record for a single tropical storm with more than 4 feet of rain.
- Puerto Rico is still mired in the longest blackout in U.S. history after Hurricane Maria struck three months ago. More than 1,000 are estimated to have died in the storm and its aftermath.
- 2017 was the third-hottest year on record. San Francisco reported its highest temperature ever, 106 degrees Fahrenheit, while other parts of the country set records for high-temperature streaks. For states like Arizona and South Carolina, 2017 was the warmest year ever.
- 14 places across Oklahoma, Missouri, and Arkansas reported record-high water levels during floods in April and May.
- Requests for federal disaster aid jumped tenfold compared to 2016, with 4.7 million people registering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.”1
It would not be inaccurate to designate 2017 as a year of The Perfect Storm of Perfect Storms. One gigantic disaster was followed by another and another and yet another. Infran and Resnick did not even mention the spillover into 2018 caused by the unusually widespread and virulent strain of flu that continued to impact healthcare into the spring.
The events mentioned above, while devastating and tragic to the people immediately and personally affected, produced tentacles that impacted tens of millions of people outside the immediate disaster areas.
Not the least to be affected was healthcare.
After 53 years in the business, I think I have earned the right to make a categorical statement: Up to now, many healthcare supply chains have been run on the “Principle of Heroic Intervention.” Just as Chief Engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott of the Federation Starship U.S.S. Enterprise (from the original Star Trek television series and first six films) liked to make situations out to be impossible and then contrive an immediate and totally effective solution, healthcare sourcing folks are at their best when something can’t be found.
Time after time they prove themselves capable of pulling the proverbial rabbit out of the hat. A typical Supply Chain leader’s comment might sound like this: “I don’t know where Mary found that toilet paper. To my knowledge, there was none available anywhere in the U.S., but we never ran out.” Possible reasons for Mary’s success include:
- She got on it early and found an alternative supplier before anyone else.
- She knew that there was a year’s worth squirreled away somewhere in the bowels of the hospital.
- Her last name was either Scott, Proctor, Gamble, Kimberly or Clark and she talked to her relatives.
Regardless of the reason, for a brief moment, Mary’s otherwise mundane job became exciting. She got recognition, notoriety and momentary fame. When the crisis was past, she returned to her job secretly praying for the next crisis, when Magnificent Mary would once again save the day and cement her spot as an indispensable resource.
That was then; 2017 changed all that — likely forever.
I have just returned from spending four days in Puerto Rico, an island nation totally rocked by Hurricane Maria. Three days before I went down, a tree fell on some powerlines and knocked power out for 900,000 people. An hour after I left to fly home, an excavator accidently killed power to everyone on the island.
Needless to say, the people of Puerto Rico have been forced to learn how to adapt to disruption.
Hurricane Maria totally devastated the island when it struck last September. Vestiges of the storm’s fury are visible everywhere.
But Puerto Ricans were not the only people to suffer from the storm’s onslaught. Puerto Rico houses more than 50 manufacturing sites in the Pharma/Life Sciences sector, and the impact of Maria was — and continues to be — felt across the healthcare industry in the United States as many key items or components remain out of stock or in short supply.
Most people in the healthcare supply chain can tell you who they buy key products from; many can tell you how they are delivered, but before Maria, few could tell you where those products were manufactured.
Now they know.
It is not uncommon for healthcare organizations to find themselves struggling to get back to normal after disaster strikes. In 2017, there were the “usual” local disasters — most notably the two hurricanes that made landfall on the continental U.S. and the extreme fires and subsequent mudslides that struck California. Also, the winter of 2017-2018 witnessed an unusually virulent strain of influenza that only exacerbated the already critical situation.
Nearly every healthcare organization has an in-depth “Disaster Recovery Plan” aimed at stemming the impact of local and regional disasters. But what happened in 2017 was totally different. Most healthcare organizations found themselves having to deal locally with an event that took place thousands of miles away.
In the next two parts of this three-part series, I will describe the response to the disasters of 2017 — from distributors to healthcare organizations large and small, integrated and standalone. I also will recount how the fires and subsequent mudslides in California challenged day-to-day activities there and suggest ways to proactively approach a future crisis. Keep reading.
Reference:
1. Vox, March 26, 2018- “Megadisasters devastated America In 2017. And they’re only going to get worse.” Umair Infran and Brian Resnick.)
