There have been many opportunities to learn from past Canadian and global crises, which have emphasized the importance of healthcare supply chain resilience in providing essential care to patients; however, considerations of healthcare supply chain resilience remain a significant gap in preparedness planning. Illustrated through the Canadian response to COVID-19 pandemic, this article will explore how healthcare supply chain resilience should be a necessary consideration in any crisis preparedness plans.

Le présent article vise donc à répondre à la question de recherche suivante : quel est le niveau de maturité digitale de la chaîne logistique interne des établissements de santé de la province de Québec ?

À cet effet, la présente étude entend répondre à cette question de recherche : quelles sont les initiatives qui pourraient être déployées à la lumière des leçons de la gestion des équipements de protection individuelle afin d’accroître la résilience de la chaîne logistique de la santé ?

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed significant fragilities in the configuration of global healthcare supply chains. This was felt acutely by citizens, patients and healthcare workers across Canada. As demand for critical medical products surged in Canada, and globally, provincial healthcare supply chain teams worked to rapidly stabilize their supply chains. These efforts indicate the emerging features of healthcare supply chain resilience.

This article describes the key findings from a case study on PPE supply chain responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in British Columbia (BC). It highlights a set of constructive response mechanisms to potential crises along healthcare supply chain.

This provincial case study, one of seven conducted as part of a national research program on healthcare supply chain management during COVID-19, focuses on Alberta. With a history of emergency preparedness, Alberta’s unique context, one that includes having an already established, centralized, and digital healthcare supply chain strategy, sets this case apart from the others in terms of pandemic responses.

This provincial case study, one of seven conducted as part of a national research program on healthcare supply chain management during COVID-19, focuses on Ontario. The context of significant restructuring of health organizations and regions in Ontario challenged the province’s capacity to respond to COVID-19.

This provincial case study, one of seven conducted as part of a national research program on management during COVID-19, focuses on Nova Scotia. During the first wave of the pandemic, Nova Scotia faced the massive destabilization of its traditional supply channels and had to grapple with role clarity and communication in its emergency response structure.

This provincial case study, one of seven conducted as part of a national research program on healthcare supply chain management during COVID-19, focuses on Newfoundland and Labrador (NL). Faced with the destabilization of its traditional supply chain, NL leveraged an existing centralized healthcare supply chain structure to organize its supply chain response to the pandemic.

A case study design was used to understand Manitoba’s response to accessing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in the first wave of the global coronavirus pandemic. By evolving early on in the pandemic to a provincially led structure dedicated to the healthcare supply chain, Manitoba was able to avoid major shortages in access to PPE.

Like other Canadian provinces, Quebec managed shortages of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic. Two years later, with hindsight, what lessons can we learn from this logistics crisis?

Every government leader and health system leader knew, or should have known, that a pandemic was inevitable. Yet, when the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, the Canadian health care supply chain was not ready.

This work aims to create predictive models that can use Canada COVID-19 data and pandemic-related factors to accurately forecast 5 quantities – three related to hospital resource utilization (i.e., number of hospital beds, ICU beds, and ventilators that will be needed by COVID-19 patients) and two to the pandemic progress (i.e., number of COVID-19 cases and COVID-19 deaths) – several weeks in advance.

This paper examines the relationship between health supply chain capacity and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Canada’s health workforce. The findings of this research also highlight the impact of the pandemic on health workers, specifically the relationship between the health supply chain and the autonomy of the health workforce.

In this paper, we present emerging findings, from a national research study, that document the key challenges faced by current vaccine rollout strategies, which include procurement and leadership strategies, citizen engagement and limitations in supply chain capacity. These findings are used to inform a scalable vaccine strategy comprising collaborative leadership, mobilization of an integrated workforce and a digitally enabled supply chain strategy.

Emerging evidence from a national research study highlights the significance of supply chain data infrastructure and processes that offer transparent, real-time data to inform decisions that support a coordinated, evidence-informed pandemic strategy that is proactive and capable of protecting the health of every Canadian.