When hospitals and health systems cannot anticipate drug shortages, they’re forced into emergency purchasing situations, often at exorbitant prices. Shortages also lead to higher operational costs, strained staff, and delayed care. The root of this challenge is a lack of visibility that keeps leaders in reactive mode.
What Medication Management Should Look Like
The most effective medication management system should connect data across pharmacy, supply chain, and finance systems to flag risks before they materialize. It should put visibility first, empowering leaders to:
- See inventory across all facilities in real time to reduce hoarding and waste.
- Spot usage patterns that flag when demand is rising faster than expected.
- Monitor supplier performance and risks to anticipate disruptions before they cascade.
- Tie purchasing decisions directly to budgets to avoid financial surprises.
With this level of insight, hospitals can prepare in advance, make targeted adjustments with minimal financial disruption, and allocate resources with confidence. Instead of unexpected shortages and rising costs that erode budgets and staff capacity, leaders gain a clear view of where risks exist and the time to act.
Getting the Foresight Your Team Needs
ShortageCheck is built to give hospitals and health systems the aforementioned level of foresight. By combining predictive analytics with purchasing data, it flags potential shortages weeks or months before they hit. With that lead time, healthcare organizations can:
- PREDICT disruptions on the horizon, instead of scrambling at the last minute
- PLAN responses with adequate time to include the right stakeholders, minimizing financial and clinical impact
- RESPOND with clarity and communication that are impossible in a reactive program
On January 7, 2025, ShortageCheck identified a looming shortage of Acetaminophen IV bags— 64 days before the official ASHP and FDA announcements in March
Pairing Foresight with Visibility
The greatest value comes when real-time inventory visibility and shortage forecasting work together. Beginning in 2026, the combination KitCheck’s RFID-powered medication management capabilities with ShortageCheck provides:
- RFID accuracy you can trust → a real-time, enterprise-wide view that’s more precise than barcode or manual counts.
- National purchasing intelligence → predictive models built on data from hundreds of hospitals, giving foresight no single system can match.
- Cross-functional clarity → connecting pharmacy, supply chain, and finance into one shared picture of risk and impact.
The result will be predictability. For the first time, leaders will be able to manage medication shortages on their own terms, rather than being forced into crisis response.
Putting a Better Model In Place
The most forward-thinking hospitals and health systems are treating drug supply the way CFOs treat financial risk: identify volatility, mitigate risk, act early. That requires two capabilities working together:
- Real-time visibility → what’s on hand across the enterprise, right now.
- Predictive foresight → what’s likely to be scarce tomorrow, and the financial impact if nothing changes.
When these views are connected they assist in:
- Planning sourcing proactively, not scramble for last-minute orders.
- Flattening financial impact caused by reactive buying
- Preparing clinicians in advance to prevent disruptions to care.
- Safeguarding budgets with data-driven decisions tied directly to finance.
Drug shortages aren’t going away. But the damage it causes doesn’t have to be inevitable. Leaders who adopt risk management over crisis management can stabilize their supply chains, protect staff, and safeguard patients.