A national survey from Tecsys Inc. reveals a serious visibility crisis in health system pharmacy supply chains. For instance, most health systems report operating without a real-time view of demand, inventory and emerging risk, and are forced to react to costly disruptions after they occur instead of preventing them before they escalate.
“It’s clear from the findings that we’re at a critical inflection point in pharmacy operations,” says Dr. Valerie Bandy, VP of pharmacy solutions at Tecsys. “Pharmacy teams are expected to manage shortages and control costs while supporting care delivery, but without end-to-end visibility, they’re forced into reactive decision-making that ultimately affects patient care.”
Key takeaways:
· The survey shows that limited visibility across care settings remains widespread, even as drug shortages, cost volatility and operational pressure continue to intensify.
- Only 20% of healthcare leaders report full, real-time visibility across inventory and care settings.
- 77% of leaders say that they are not fully prepared for major disruptions.
- Four in five (79%) say drug shortages have caused the most disruption to pharmacy operations over the past 12-24 months; demand spikes (63%) and raw material shortages (63%) are cited as the top factors
- Only 15% have fully deployed AI/ML for demand forecasting, inventory optimization, drug shortages or risk prediction.
- Nearly half (48%) of pharmacy and supply chain leaders see their function as strategic, but only 15% of hospital executives agree.
