McKesson: Supporting health care heroes on the front lines.

Editor’s note: This is part of a series of articles on how retailers are responding to the COVID-19 crisis.

Kirk Kaminsky

During these challenging times, McKesson plays a critical role in the health care supply chain, helping to deliver essential medicines and supplies to the people who need them most. As one of the largest health care companies in the world, we deliver more than one-third of U.S. medications. The pressure our industry and partners are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented. But it has thrust our industry into the spotlight in a way that will demonstrate how it’s supporting health care heroes on the front lines and the patients they’re fighting to save.

McKesson has made taking care of our employees and customers our No. 1 priority. We activated our business continuity plans to help protect our workers and customers and to help reduce any adverse impacts on critical business processes. We continue to review these plans and refine as needed to support both customers and our frontline team members in these unique circumstances.

Supporting Our People

None of our efforts would be possible if it weren’t for our frontline team members. McKesson has an unmatched team of talented and dedicated employees and our critical employees — including those in our distribution centers — are putting forth tremendous effort to maintain services essential to health care delivery. We also greatly admire and respect the many pharmacists, doctors, nurses and other critical health care workers that we continue to support each day.

We take our role in helping to protect these individuals very seriously. In March, we adopted a range of protocols in our distribution centers, from floor decals that guide employees to stand six feet apart, to enhanced cleaning and disinfecting procedures and handwashing reminders. We established sanitation and social-distancing guidelines with our couriers as well and increased tote cleaning. We also enabled all employees who can perform their jobs at home to do so. These measures are designed to protect not just our people but our customers, too.

Leveraging Our Experience

The COVID-19 health crisis is unprecedented in our lifetime with its global reach, but as a long-established company, McKesson can tap into our deep well of experience to face the challenges it presents. Our experience fighting other health crises like H1N1, SARS and even natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina have taught us invaluable lessons that we can use here, too. We’ve also developed and strengthened many strategic partnerships that position us well to respond to industry pressures — including supply chain challenges.

We’re in ongoing communication with manufacturers, industry groups, government agencies and other strategic partners to help anticipate any disruptions or shortages and determine how we can best support them. COVID-19 remains a fluid situation, so it’s a day-to-day process of turning over every stone to secure inventory for our provider partners, so they can be prepared to treat and minimize exposure to the virus.

Responding to Demand

In areas with increased need, McKesson is working to adjust allocations to meet that critical need to the extent possible. We are aware that there are many products that customers might not have had significant historic demand for but that are needed now to help treat COVID-19 ­infection.

Although we do not have manufacturing capabilities that can directly address these shortages and therefore cannot directly increase the volume of important medical supplies and devices, we do have the necessary infrastructure to quickly help manage the distribution of such products across the ­country.

Our warehouses and private fleet, as well as contracted air and ground freight carriers, already serve hundreds of thousands of providers. As more products become available in the U.S., we are ready to act and leverage our strong, reliable network to quickly distribute them to where they are needed.

Experience Is a Great Teacher

With every crisis comes an opportunity to learn and grow, and we have already gleaned many new synergies and learnings from COVID-19. We’re paying close attention to the trends, including a growing momentum around telemedicine, which plays an important role in slowing foot traffic in clinics and hospitals during this crisis. We’re also seeing a push to increase the scope of practice for pharmacists, who may eventually take on more responsibilities to help ease the burden on physicians and nurses.

As we navigate through this challenging period, McKesson will continue to draw on its strengths — from our incredibly talented workers on the front lines and behind the scenes to our partnerships with customers, manufacturers and government agencies. This virus does not discriminate; it affects all of us. We’re in this fight together, we stand united, and we will get through this stronger than ever.

Kirk Kaminsky is president of Pharmaceutical Solutions and Services at McKesson Corp.