The online swaps are a counterintuitive
result of the widely reported U.S. medical
supply shortages: Hospitals also have some
surpluses, due to unexpected private donations,
government allocations, shipments ordered
months ago finally arriving and declines in
patients as virus hot spots shift.
In just its first two weeks, The Exchange
at Resilinc had more than 900 hospitals
participating, plus thousands of surgery
centers, nursing homes and other facilities.
They have posted requests for more than
575,000 items and offers of nearly 1.8 million
items as of May 11. A dozen trades covering
thousands of items, mostly protective gear, have
been completed in barely three weeks, with
more pending.
Most of these new platforms launched in mid- or
late April. Others include:
— Vizient, a hospital consultant and group
purchasing organization, has set up a site for
hospitals with spare supplies to donate or sell
them to other hospitals.
— Cohealo, which arranges for hospitals to
temporarily lend pricey but rarely used medical
equipment, is helping to coordinate a national
reserve of breathing machines. When hospitals
lend ventilators to others with shortages,
Cohealo handles pickup and shipment.
— Helping Hospitals is finding doctors and
other medical workers whose regular jobs have
been disrupted to work temporarily at hot-spot
hospitals. It’s a partnership of staffing agency
On Call Physician Staffing and malpractice
insurer Curi.