Healthcare IT Today | July 2026
Kilee Yarosh, Senior Manager of Clinical Strategists at Omnicell, argues that the real problem with drug shortages isn't scarcity itself, but how late organizations find out about it. When inventory data is fragmented across dispensing cabinets, pharmacy systems, and EHR workflows, care teams become the "integration layer," scrambling to locate product and rework orders after the fact. Yarosh frames this as an interoperability and data governance issue: without one consistent view of supply status, shortages will keep arriving as surprises.
Her solution is a 90-day playbook that moves from mapping inventory gaps, to standardizing data and escalation pathways, to embedding shortage signals directly into daily workflows like ordering and dispensing. Three capabilities — real-time visibility, exception-based workflows, and predictive analytics — let pharmacy and supply chain teams act earlier and more consistently. Yarosh's core message: shortages may be unavoidable, but the resulting chaos isn't, and the right technology can turn disruptions into managed exceptions rather than daily fire drills.