U.S. medical providers are seeing long delays in the delivery of medical supplies, according to a Dec. 17 Health Industry Distributors Association report.
Between 8,000 and 12,000 containers of medical supplies, each holding the equivalent of about 190,000 medical gowns, 360,000 syringes and 3.5 million surgical gloves, are moving at a crawl thanks to supply chain congestion, the report said.
Medical supplies are sitting dormant at shipping ports for an average of 17 days, with the greatest number of medical containers being delayed at the port of Savannah, Ga., and the California ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, the report said.
After making it through the shipping port congestion, containers are further subjected to average delays of 11 days by rail, followed by nine days by truck, the report said.
HIDA recommends a "fast pass" system to prioritize the transport of medical supplies, the report said.