Tina Vatanka Murphy, CEO & President, GHX.
In late 2024, Hurricane Helene struck the Carolinas, shutting down one of the nation’s key producers of IV fluids. Just as hospitals began to adapt, a labor strike at 36 major U.S. ports further disrupted the flow of medical supplies and pharmaceuticals. These events came on the heels of the Covid-19 pandemic—a crisis that should have been our wake-up call to build stronger, more resilient systems. Instead, they exposed just how little has changed. Our healthcare supply chain is facing a fragility crisis, with each new disruption compounding the last and leaving hospitals to navigate operational chaos at the very moment patients need them most.
In recent years, the drive to cut costs has often overshadowed building resilience. While saving money might look good on paper, it can compromise the long-term stability of the supply chain. A single disruption—a geopolitical hiccup, a natural disaster or even an unexpected blockage—should not have the power to halt the flow of life-saving supplies.
In response, I believe leaders must re-examine the healthcare supply network and shift the focus from cost savings to building resilience—all while keeping expenses in check. Here’s how:
Recognize the warning signs.
Warning signs come in the form of delayed shipments, expensive stockpiling, lean staffing and overreliance on a single source of essential supplies. These issues force healthcare leaders into tough decisions that directly impact patient care. For instance, an uptick in shipment delays or backorders can force healthcare facilities to spend additional time and resources sourcing alternative supplies, diverting focus from patient care to logistical firefighting.
As CEO of a company that partners with many of the healthcare industry’s leading integrated hospital systems, I hear firsthand how these disruptions are playing out on the ground. Hospital leaders share stories of sleepless nights, delayed procedures and staff burnout—all symptoms of a supply system ill-equipped for volatility. These conversations fuel my conviction: We must stop treating fragility as the cost of doing business.
Understand the root causes.
No single issue sits behind this crisis. Unpredictable economic conditions, rising costs and other external pressures have combined to destabilize the supply network.
Market volatility has tightened financing and escalated costs, making it harder for organizations to balance budgets. With 69% of medical devices in the U.S. manufactured solely abroad, additional pressures like tariffs further compound these challenges. Meanwhile, rising healthcare costs are projected to outpace economic growth in the next decade. Add to that the intensifying impacts of climate events, workforce disruptions and global supply interruptions and the picture becomes clear: This isn’t a series of isolated incidents. It is systemic fragility that reveals just how ill-equipped our current supply models are to withstand disruption.
Solving this crisis isn’t just a matter of fixing processes—it’s a test of leadership. It requires courage to disrupt outdated procurement models, reimagine cost structures and invest in resiliency even when budgets are tight. This is the moment for leaders to lean into uncertainty and act boldly on behalf of the patients and providers who depend on us.
Chart a course for innovation.
We are entering a new era—one where technology has finally caught up to our boldest ambitions. Amid these challenges, many hospitals are adopting increasingly smarter approaches by leveraging data and automation to drive purchasing decisions and streamline operations.
For example, AI is helping hospitals modernize core supply chain workflows by making data more accessible, decisions more actionable and operations more resilient. With conversational reporting, supply chain leaders can ask natural-language questions and instantly surface visual insights—without relying on dashboards or stretched IT teams. AI co-pilots are improving order accuracy by identifying and resolving root causes behind fulfillment errors. In the face of growing backorders, intelligent triage systems can now assess clinical and operational risk, prioritize response and recommend substitutions. And in the operating room (OR), AI is optimizing surgical preference cards, reducing waste and standardizing supply use across procedures. These aren’t future aspirations—they’re live capabilities that are helping hospitals reclaim time, reduce variation and strengthen the systems that support patient care. I believe organizations that invest in technology and transparency will prove more resilient, driving a meaningful shift in how healthcare logistics operate.
As leaders, this is a once-in-a-career opportunity to turn disruption into progress. I invite leaders across the industry to meet this moment—not just to respond to fragility, but to rethink, rebuild and lead forward. The time for bold, purpose-driven leadership is now.
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