Supply Chain and Resource Management

Resources will be exhausted during a disaster. Los Angeles residents will be dependent upon a supply chain, in which each link is not guaranteed. Therefore supplies, or caches, must be carefully manged, planned and replenished as necessary.

The Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) provides a model for a federally managed reserve of supplies. Once a public health emergency is declared and a locality is determined to be in need, SNS reserves of medication and supplies can be accessed and delivered. 

Other resources needed in disaster:

• Portable water. Hospitals will need water, which in the largest hospitals may be up to one million gallons per day.
• Blood products
• Oxygen and breathing equipment such as ventilators
• Electricity and diesel fuel for generators as backup

As these resources are critical and costly and will be scarce in disaster, purchasing contracts and protocols for delivery must be in place in advance of an event.