Covid-19 had a significant effect on the world, the healthcare industry, and the guidelines we follow to remain safe and healthy. The world saw hospitals run out of beds for sick patients. Hospitals did not have the staff to deal with the influx of patients needing care. They were not just running out of space for the sick, but they were also not prepared for the amount of PPE used by staff and patients.
The world was not prepared for this pandemic. A critical way of being better prepared for the next pandemic is to know the amount of PPE that your business should have stockpiled. When stockpiling PPE for the next pandemic, businesses need to understand their industry. Stockpiling PPE looks different depending on what industry you work in.
Unfortunately, a few new strands of Covid-19 have been discovered. The Delta Variant strand has proven to spread faster and more efficiently than the last. Cases are rising in certain parts of the United States, and the need for PPE will also increase. Stockpiling has never been more critical.
Do Not Allow History to Repeat Itself
The most significant part of experiencing an emergency like Covid-19 is that it allows every industry affected to learn. The world now knows what can be expected from a pandemic in terms of PPE. It will enable hospitals and other industries to look back on the number of PPE used through the pandemic to figure out a better ordering system. They can take this information and use it to be better prepared in the future. Learning from past experiences can significantly affect future situations positively.
Study Your Previous Ordering System
When the time comes, and another disaster like Covid-19 occurs, industries can now start planning their stockpiles of PPE now and be better prepared. The main goal behind stockpiling your PPE is to know what the numbers looked like at the peak of the pandemic. Businesses should look back through their invoices and get an idea of what they were missing. Businesses need to look at the systems they had in place before the pandemic and try to figure out the difference between what you had on hand versus what was required. They then need to alter the data that they have on-hand and consistently increase their numbers when ordering.
Do Not Panic Order
Remember, one of the largest issues that were occurring during the pandemic was the shortage in PPE. Companies were not prepared for the large orders coming from different industries. The problem businesses face when they stockpile, they do not want to buy out an entire company’s stock in one or two products. When this occurs, it creates delays for other parts of the industry. Businesses need to increase their orders of PPE steadily and slowly. When a business allows a PPE company to adjust their production, it prevents out of stocks in the essential PPE that everyone needs to be safe. Businesses from multiple diverse types of industries must learn from the mistakes made in 2020. PPE companies were not prepared for the massive order quantities coming from various parts of the industry.
Training and Policy Implementation
When stockpiling for PPE, businesses need to make sure that their staff is trained in PPE usage. They need to make sure that PPE is not going to waste and that their staff knows the proper guidelines to follow. Businesses throughout all industries are changing the way they train their staff for using PPE. When the pandemic started, people were employed in different businesses who were not aware of the proper ways to wear a mask. They were not aware of the difference between using sanitizer or soap and water. People were not prepared for this disaster. When you train your staff to use PPE correctly, it makes ordering PPE a much simpler process.
To summarize, when stockpiling PPE, industries are mainly dealing with data. They need to create a process of determining how large the shortage they encountered was. They need to take the numbers previously used when ordering and increase them. All industries need to realize that PPE companies are businesses just like everybody else. They have numbers that they base their production on. When multiple parts of the industry start ordering substantial amounts that they were not prepared for, there will be delays when stockpiling for PPE. Ordering steadily and slowly from places like Newrain allows the industry to prepare themselves better, whether PPE companies or businesses ordering from PPE companies.
