Harnessing Tech to Build Resilient Hospital Supply Chains

Drug shortages continue to create significant financial and operational strain on hospitals, impacting both patient care and workforce efficiency. In a video interview with Pharma Commerce, Boyede Sobitan, global healthcare strategy lead, and Annika Matas,senior director of product management and business operations, supplies and sensors—both with Zebra Technologies—they describe how hospitals are increasingly forced to adapt to these challenges, often in unsustainable ways.

From a patient care perspective, the absence or delay of critical medications forces hospitals into difficult positions. Some have had to borrow drugs from neighboring institutions just to meet immediate needs. This creates not only logistical hurdles but also ethical concerns about equitable access to treatment.

Operational inefficiencies compound the problem. Sobitan noted that hospital staff sometimes misplace or unintentionally withhold highly sought-after drugs, leading to further shortages within the facility. Additionally, issues such as hospital diversions can exacerbate availability challenges, reducing reliability in already stressed systems. These situations underscore the importance of better inventory management and stronger oversight practices.

The impact extends beyond patient-facing concerns. Matas highlighted that nursing staff, whose primary role is to deliver direct patient care, often become entangled in logistical work. Nurses are spending increasing amounts of time tracking down medications, coordinating with pharmacy teams, or delaying procedures until necessary drugs arrive. This redirection of focus not only reduces staff efficiency but also heightens burnout risks in an already overstretched workforce.

Indirect costs quickly add up. Delayed treatments, longer hospital stays, and disruptions in surgical schedules strain financial resources and diminish overall hospital productivity. Ultimately, drug shortages create a ripple effect: patients experience delays in care, frontline staff face increased stress and inefficiencies, and hospital systems bear additional financial burdens.

Addressing these issues requires more robust supply chain solutions, improved communication between pharmacy and clinical teams, and greater systemic efforts to mitigate shortages before they impact patient safety and operational stability.

They also dive into the ways RFID and RTLS technologies can provide real-time visibility into medication inventory for hospital pharmacy teams; factors should hospitals consider when evaluating or implementing these systems to manage their medication inventory; the role these technologies could play in strengthening hospital supply chain resilience against future disruptions; and much more.

A transcript of their conversation with PC can be found below.

PC: What role could these technologies play in strengthening hospital supply chain resilience against future disruptions?

Sobitan: Coming out of COVID, we don't know where those supply chain disruptions are going to happen. The ability to know [is important]. I can see this expand into more regional opportunity where, let’s say I'm in Illinois. The Illinois Department of Public Health is going to require hospitals to have this so that, when there's an emergency, we know who we need to go to, who has different supplies.

There's a centralized, more government stakeholder opportunity. Now, this is just me riffing right now. There's nothing that's been stated on paper that I'm aware of at least, of going there, but I definitely think the more this technology is utilized in the way intended, I think that that localization or regionalization of that data, along with having that regional visibility, is going to come become more and more prominent.

Hospitals right now report how many available beds they have, how many ICU beds, how many ventilators they have. It’s logical to then assume that they're going to then require from a state or city level how many IV bags of this you have in case we have an emergency, so we know how we're then routing patients and routing resources for regional disasters.