Reporting and Monitoring Personal Protective Equipment Inventory during the Pandemic

The spread of COVID-19 drastically increased the demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks, gloves, and gowns, and significantly disrupted the global supply chain. As the nation’s largest integrated healthcare system, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) had to compete for PPE for its personnel and patients. The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) received hotline allegations that VHA medical facilities could not acquire and maintain enough PPE to keep pace with escalating needs. The OIG assessed how VHA reported and monitored PPE supply levels during the pandemic. The review team also solicited information about whether facilities ran out of PPE or experienced significant shortages. Without reliable PPE inventory information, VHA cannot effectively assess demand, monitor stock levels, or identify supply shortages that require prompt action. In interviews of 22 people involved in logistics operations at 42 facilities, no one reported running out of PPE items. Some individuals reported running low, but risks of outages were mitigated by shifting supplies among facilities or acquiring additional PPE in time. Overall, the OIG found VHA took swift steps to work around known limitations in its inventory management system by developing new processes and tools, to use near real-time information on PPE inventory to shift and order supplies, and to otherwise ensure its facilities would not run out of PPE. The OIG found, however, that VHA could improve the accuracy and consistency of the PPE data for reporting and monitoring. VHA concurred with the OIG’s two recommendations to provide guidance for reporting expired quantities of PPE that may still be of use, and to more effectively verify facilities’ self-reported information. Although not a formal recommendation, the OIG also called on VHA to report any data limitations until corrections can be made.