HealthPRO Canada News

March 10, 2020

Update: COVID-19 (Coronavirus)

HealthPRO is actively working to assist members with their pandemic management as it relates to COVID-19 (Coronavirus).

PHARMACY

Our pharmacy team is communicating with our contracted suppliers on an ongoing basis to determine if they:

  • anticipate any impact from COVID-19
  • source medications, Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) and/or pharmaceutical components from China or other affected countries to supply the Canadian market
  • anticipate any risk of supply shortages in the near future

In addition, we have asked our suppliers for weekly updates to help monitor any early signals of supply disruptions and assess their contingency plans to mitigate any risks identified.

We also communicated to our suppliers of Metered Dose Inhalers (MDIs) that they may see an increased demand as the use of nebulized medication will be reduced to prevent transmission of respiratory pathogens.  These suppliers were encouraged to use our guidance tool: Allocation Best Practices to ensure fair distribution of your metered dose inhalers and other non-aerosol generating inhalation delivery devices during this time.

As new information is received from suppliers, our Pharmacy Supplier Outreach Summary on the HealthPROCONNECT Portal will be updated with a new version date. 


MATERIALS MANAGEMENT

Our Materials Management team has contacted all suppliers who participate in our pandemic supply Vendor of Record Agreements, as well as other contracted suppliers who are awarded products that are crucial to hospitals during a pandemic.

Further, we are contacting suppliers whose manufacturing facilities are located in China to determine if they:

  • have manufacturing facilities are in the quarantined area;
  • can secure product for export from these facilities to avert or minimize any supply disruption; and
  • have facilities in the quarantined area, whether they have any redundancies in manufacturing that can mitigate any supply disruption for products produced inside the quarantined area

A Product Status Summary which outlines identified current supply disruptions, products on allocation, and known delays is now available on the MM Supply Disruptions section of the HealthPROCONNECT Portal along with all other related communications.


If you have any questions or concerns, please contact your Member Support representative.