One Smarter Health (OSH) has created MSUV which looks at the management of SKU’s used in building surge response capabilities and functionally planning secondary usage as part of either the original design of the primary asset, or as an integrated function of current response capabilities. This minimizes initial costs, current costs, future costs while maximizing SKU use and minimizing; if not eliminating, waste for the customer.

Currently in the disaster response and healthcare world, response assets and caches of material are bought and stored for emergency response. There is typically no secondary use planned for and this material is ultimately wasted and thrown out. The ability to use product for secondary functions allows for “wise use” of materiel associated with assets and caches of material. This particular option may or may not allow potential dollars to be exchanged but does address the area of reverse logistics and minimizing product waste. The concept of reverse logistics is “the return and disposition of inventories in a cost-effective and secure manner.”

MSUV™ is a system that defines the Maximum Secondary Use Value for a particular SKU. This MSUV™ for a particular SKU can and should be different depending on the potential secondary uses that have been identified. For example, a case of Intravenous Fluid (IVF) could have MSUV™ values (in days) of 60, 70, 90, 105, and 150. The value that reflects the most lead time and has the least potential benefit is 150. This means that for a secondary program/site to receive and use this particular SKU prior to its expiration, the receiving program would need to receive it with 150 days of shelf life available. The value of most potential benefit to a response program or asset is 60 as this requires the least amount of lead time by a receiving or secondary entity to use a product prior to expiration.

The MSUV™ system can be incorporated in three different models.

• The first is a pure donation model. Based on the MSUV™ value, a product is rotated from the civilian/government cache and donated to an entity such as a free clinic.
• The second model is one in which, based on the MSUV™, a product is rotated out of the response program or asset cache in exchange for an equal product with a longer shelf life. This can only be done if a partnering agency is willing to participate, is agreeable to the MSUV™ value, and the MSUV™ remains constant over time.
• The third model is based on the “re-sale model." The MSUV™ system would allow tighter controls while decreasing missed-opportunities for sale in the "traditional re-sale model."

Maximum Secondary Use Value™ incorporates a holistic and systematic approach to the design and management of response capabilities and assets. The natural outcomes to this approach are cost savings and response capability.