Driving Results Blog
When disruption hits, can your healthcare network keep moving?
September 28, 2026
By Libby Gaspar, MedSpeed Regional VP of Operations
You can have a plan for disruption. The real test is whether your network can execute it.
National Preparedness Month is an opportunity for healthcare leaders to ask a practical question: when disruption changes the conditions for delivering care, can the network keep moving?
A disruption that begins in one place can quickly affect an entire healthcare network. A storm closes roads. A cyberattack takes scheduling and communications systems offline. A shortage leaves one facility searching for an item another has in inventory. A closure changes where patients, specimens, pharmaceuticals, supplies, and equipment need to go.
What starts as a local problem can quickly become a network-wide challenge. In each scenario, the leadership challenge is the same: preserve continuity while the conditions are changing in real time.
Healthcare’s strength is also its exposure
Modern healthcare operates as an interconnected ecosystem. Hospitals, ambulatory sites, laboratories, pharmacies, physician practices, vendors, technology platforms, transportation partners, and infrastructure all support the continuous flow of time-sensitive materials.
That connection creates scale and efficiency, but it also creates exposure. A single dependency can affect capacity, access, timing, or clinical workflow across multiple sites.
The more connected the network, the more important it becomes to understand how those dependencies function before something goes wrong.
Preparedness, then, is not simply about documenting what each facility should do in an emergency. It is about understanding how the network functions as a whole and where it may need to adapt when one part of it changes.
A plan is only as strong as the network behind it
Emergency plans establish priorities, responsibilities, and procedures. But when conditions change, someone still has to execute them.
That may mean rerouting specimens, moving critical inventory, increasing delivery frequency, redirecting pharmaceuticals, or supporting an alternate care site. Each decision depends on knowing what is happening across the network, where demand is changing, which routes remain viable, and what resources are available.
That is why preparedness has to extend beyond the plan itself. Technology resilience, offline processes, communication protocols, chain-of-custody procedures, and clear priorities all help establish the foundation for a response.
For healthcare leaders, three capabilities are particularly important: visibility, decision velocity, and flexible capacity.
Three capabilities turn a plan into a response
1. Know how the network works before you need to change it
Resilience starts with knowing how the network operates before a disruption occurs. Leaders need a current view of critical flows, dependencies, and potential points of failure. That means understanding which locations rely on which resources, where alternatives exist, and which movements are most time-sensitive for patient care.
2. Make decisions while there is still time to act
Disruption compresses time. Clear thresholds, escalation paths, and decision rights allow teams to shift resources quickly instead of waiting for approvals while conditions deteriorate.
3. Have capacity that can move when conditions change
Resilient networks can adjust routes, frequencies, vehicles, and staffing as demand changes. They allow the system to operate as a shared resource rather than forcing each facility to solve the same problem on its own
Resilience in action
Preparedness is ultimately measured in moments when plans meet reality. These two recent examples from our MedSpeeders show what happens when a network has the ability to adapt.
When severe storms left a local operation without power for five days, the broader MedSpeed team stepped in.
Roads were blocked, nearby businesses, were closed, and even finding fuel access, and local operations became a challenge. The broader MedSpeed network stepped in, with teams from South Bend and Indianapolis helping deliver generators, fuel, lighting, and other essential supplies. Meanwhile, Hammond team members set up temporary workstations, maintained around-the-clock coverage, and continued running routes while managing outages and damage at home.
Keeping Hammond running took more than a contingency plan. It took people across the network recognizing what the team needed, making decisions quickly, and getting the right resources there.
When winter weather eliminated the expected transportation path, teams created another one.
A rare ice and snowstorm grounded commercial shipping flights across the Southeast, putting thousands of time-sensitive patient specimens at risk. MedSpeed and a leading national laboratory mobilized teams across eight states, adjusting routes, coordinating relay-style handoffs with partners, and driving specimens between airport cargo terminals and the laboratory’s central facility.
Together, the teams transported thousands of specimens in four days, nearly triple the usual volume. That work helped keep critical testing and patient care moving despite extreme winter conditions.
The original transportation plan was no longer an option. The teams had to build another one.
Resilience is an enterprise operating choice
Healthcare organizations cannot predict every disruption. They can decide whether their networks will be brittle or adaptable.
That decision is made long before an incident through network design, vendor strategy, operating governance, data visibility, capacity planning, and regular testing. It is also made in how organizations think about logistics. Is it simply a transactional service, or is it part of the infrastructure that helps keep care moving?
At MedSpeed, we design systemwide healthcare logistics networks around that broader mandate. By connecting facilities as one ecosystem, health systems can build redundancy, establish alternative routing, and reallocate resources as conditions change, while maintaining the control and accountability healthcare demands.
After years of working in healthcare logistics operations, I have come to believe that preparedness is ultimately about confidence: confidence that when conditions change, leaders have the visibility, relationships, and operating discipline to respond.