Leading through Crises: Healthcare Supply Chain Strategies and Lessons Learned from the COVID-19 Challenges

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted healthcare organizations globally, particularly from a supply chain perspective. Leaders with successful responses have drawn upon their toolkit to anticipate threats, recognize crises, respond decisively, visibly engage in problem solving and facilitate communication. By harnessing these skills, leaders have tackled COVID-19-related challenges, including panic buying, organizational goal misalignment, staff anxiety and criticism. By applying crisis management theory and presenting learnings from interviews with American and Canadian healthcare leaders, we present solutions and lessons learned, including implementing communication methods, building staff resiliency, reducing staff anxiety and leading virtually.