Arkansas Children’s joined a coalition bringing together some of the nation’s top children’s hospitals, in collaboration with Phlow, to provide certainty in availability and access for key medicines necessary to sustain life and conquer disease. The Children’s Hospital Coalition, powered by PhlowTM (CHC) will address the nation’s broken essential medicines supply chain.
“As the only pediatric health system in our state, Arkansas Children’s is committed to fulfilling Our Promise: Unprecedented Child Health. Defined and Delivered,” said Marcy Doderer, FACHE, Arkansas Children’s president and CEO. “Together with Phlow, and other children’s hospitals across the country, we will work to ensure a reliable and affordable supply of high-quality essential medicines. Arkansas Children’s is honored to participate in this initiative and looks forward to collaborating with others to assess the medicine shortage and supply chain management issues experienced throughout the country.”
Shortages of essential medicines for children are a persistent problem plaguing hospitals across the United States. A 2019 survey of 330 U.S. hospitals, including 29 pediatric hospitals, demonstrated that medicine shortages disproportionately and uniquely impact children’s hospitals. (Vizient, 2020) The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed further vulnerabilities in the overall U.S. hospital supply chain, particularly regarding essential injectable medications. To address this issue, the CHC is charged with a mission to deliver on the promise of ensuring a reliable supply of high-quality, affordable, essential medicines to treat children.
“The care of America’s children is unnecessarily impacted by essential medicine shortages, which often leads to compromised patient care, clinician frustration, and increased hospital pharmacy costs and inefficiencies,” said Eric Edwards, MD, PhD, co-founder, president and CEO of Phlow. “By empowering an innovative and unique coalition of the top children’s hospitals in the country, we will be able to work with visionary leaders to solve this chronic and vexing problem.”
The 11 founding hospital members of the CHC are Arkansas Children’s, Boston Children’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU, Children’s National, Children’s Wisconsin, Cincinnati Children’s, Cook Children’s, Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital, Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, and Nationwide Children’s.
The coalition is working together to further escalate this issue on the national agenda, to encourage children’s hospitals to join in this cause, and educate other hospitals on how this coalition will aid in ending shortages of essential medicines. Ultimately, the goal of the CHC is to increase the resiliency and reliability of the pediatric pharmaceutical supply chain.
The founding members of the CHC, including Phlow, recognize that essential medicine supply is a critical problem nationwide and welcome new children’s hospital members to join in this bold initiative. Visit www.childrenshospitalcoalition.com for more information on how to join the CHC.