Simulation and modeling efforts to support decision making in healthcare supply chain management

Purchasing challenges in times of COVID-19: resilience practices to mitigate disruptions in the health-care supply chain

Purpose

This study aims to identify supply chain (SC) management practices applied to purchasing capable of improving the resilience of the health-care SC and mitigating the effects of material and service disruption during pandemics.

Design/methodology/approach

The approach adopted is qualitative and is based on a systematic literature review from the ScienceDirect, Emerald, Wiley and Web of Science databases. After selecting 705 documents, filters are applied, and 52 articles present problems faced by purchasing the health-care SC during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Findings

This article suggests five propositions of resilient practices that can increase purchasing resilience in the face of pandemics such as COVID-19. The proposed practices are collaboration, flexibility, visibility, agility and information sharing, which suggest a sequence for the adoption of management practices based on the number of occurrences and importance found in the analysed studies.

Research limitations/implications

This study does not find robust empirical evidence that could categorically state that the results can be replicated in organisations in general. Thus, as a continuation of research, more studies should use an empirical methodology and case analysis to organise different branches. As the human factor was decisive for the results observed in the literature, future research should dedicate part of the studies to the psychological area of professionals. Actions to combat the pandemic were implemented, impacting positively and negatively on the results obtained. Future research on combat actions could indicate which ones should be avoided.

Practical implications

As a result, disruptions are expected to be reduced, and consequently, the resilience of the SC will increase. Accordingly, purchasing processes and procedures can be redefined to positively influence the resilience of the health-care SC. Resilience is related to maintaining the flow of supply, as well as systems and actions aimed at mitigating the effects of disruptions in the hospital’s core business.

Social implications

Health systems need to respond to society’s needs even in the face of global crises, such as the one faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. The overload in hospitals and the exponential demand for specific medicines and services in the fight against the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic require enormous coordination in procurement by the purchasing sector. This planning aims to ensure that the care provided by health services maintains the flow of value that serves hospitalised patients.

Originality/value

This study introduces a new approach to the recurrent problem of disruption of the health-care SC during a pandemic using a combination of five important management practices. This proves useful for mitigating disruptions and their effects on the health-care SC.

A hybrid framework to model resilience in the generic medicine supply chain of MSMEs

Purpose

One of the most important components of healthcare is the timely delivery of pharmaceutical products, such as life-saving medicines. However, disruptions like COVID-19 bring new challenges and risks to the pharmaceutical supply chain (PSC) and healthcare organizations that impact their operational performance. This study focuses on mitigating risks in India's generic medicine supply chain (GMSC) as a result of various disruptions, which can assist policymakers develop appropriate plans and strategies to build resilience in the Jan Aushadhi Scheme (JAS) of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in order to improve their overall performance.

Design/methodology/approach

Risk-causing vulnerabilities and resilience capabilities are identified from the literature review and expert's opinions. Following that, the vulnerabilities are classified into cause-and-effect vulnerabilities, and supply chain resilient capabilities (SCRCs) are measured using a hybrid fuzzy DEMATEL and best worst method (FDEMATEL-BMW) framework.

Findings

The outcome of the study reveals that transportation breakdown, loss of human resources and loss of suppliers are the potential risk-causing vulnerabilities that lead to vulnerabilities like shortages of medicines, loss of in-hand stock qualities and loss of sales/revenue. In addition, the analysis suggests that the sustainability of an organization with maximum weightage is the critical factor for building resilience in GMSC followed by flexibility, agility and visibility.

Practical implications

The integration of resilience into Jan Aushadhi GMSC can help in managing disruptions efficiently and effectively to mitigate risk and optimize MSMEs overall performance.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this work will be the first of its kind to model resilience in GMSC of MSMEs using a hybrid framework.

A systematic literature review on supply chain risk management: is healthcare management a forsaken research field?

Purpose

This paper aims to present a systematic literature review (SLR) to investigate how supply chain risk management (SCRM) is applied to the healthcare supply chains and which improvement opportunities are being missed in this segment.

Design/methodology/approach

This SLR used the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method to answer three research questions: (1) Which are the main gaps concerning healthcare supply chain risk management (HCSCRM)? (2) What is the definition of HCSCRM? and (3) What are the risk management techniques and approaches used in healthcare supply chains?

Findings

The authors present a complete summary of the HCSCRM body of research, investigating research strings like clinical engineering and high reliability organizations (HROs) and its relations with HCSCRM; (1) This research revealed the five pillars of HCSCRM; (2) The authors proposed a formal definition for HCSCRM considering all the literature blocks explored and (3) The authors generated a list of risks present in healthcare supply chains resulting from extensive article research.

Research limitations/implications

The authors only reviewed international journal articles (published in the English language), excluding conference papers, dissertations and theses, textbooks, book chapters, unpublished articles and notes. In addition, the study did not thoroughly investigate specific countries' particularities concerning how the healthcare providers are organized.

Originality/value

The contribution of this article is threefold: (1) To the best of authors knowledge, there is no other SLR about HCSCRM published in the scientific literature by the time of realization of authors’ work, suggesting that is the first effort to fulfill this research gap; (2) Following the previous contribution, in this work the authors propose a first formal definition for HCSCRM and (3) The authors analyzed concepts such as clinical engineering and HROs to establish the building blocks of HCSCRM.

Medication Exchange and Sharing Network Program (MESNP) initiative to cope with drug shortages in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)

Background

Drug shortages are a major public health concern and remain a persistent problem worldwide. At present, there are no unified existing strategies for managing medicine stocks in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Here, the aim is to describe our experience with creating a non-profit voluntary national Medication Exchange and Sharing Network Program (MESNP) throughout the KSA.

Methods

A quality improvement process map method was used in this project. The baseline evaluation included a review of possible reasons and strategies for managing medication shortages and recognizing potential associated safety issues. To that end, at the national level, we developed MESNP as a novel project to cope with medication shortages using Telegram social media as the preferred program for connecting with the member institution.

Results

A total of 500 requests were received over one year. Three hundred and fifteen (315) constituted requests for drug supplies due to shortages while the number of reports indicating the availability of overstock drug for re-distribution is (185). Almost 98% of overstocking drug reports was re-distributed in which it covers 75% of drug shortage requests.

Conclusion

This novel project aims to use our current resources by facilitating the medication exchange and sharing between the organizations at national level. The optimistic goal is to proactively mitigate drug wastages and prevent drug shortages toward better patient care.

The drug logistics process: an innovative experience

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to present the latest innovations in the drug distribution processes of hospital companies, which are currently dealing with high inventory and storage costs and fragmented organizational responsibilities.

Design/methodology/approach

– The literature review and the in-depth analysis of a case study support the understanding of the unit dose drug distribution system and the subsequent definition of the practical implications for hospital companies.

Findings

– Starting from the insights offered by the case study, the analysis shows that the unit dose system allows hospitals to improve the patient care quality and reduce costs.

Research limitations/implications

– The limitations of the research are those related to the theoretical and exploratory nature of the study, but from a practical point of view, the work provides important indications to the management of healthcare companies, which have to innovate their drug distribution systems.

Originality/value

– This paper analyzes a new and highly topical issue and provides several insights for the competitive development of a fundamental sector.

Proactive supply chain performance management with predictive analytics

Today's business climate requires supply chains to be proactive rather than reactive, which demands a new approach that incorporates data mining predictive analytics. This paper introduces a predictive supply chain performance management model which combines process modelling, performance measurement, data mining models, and web portal technologies into a unique model. It presents the supply chain modelling approach based on the specialized metamodel which allows modelling of any supply chain configuration and at different level of details. The paper also presents the supply chain semantic business intelligence (BI) model which encapsulates data sources and business rules and includes the data warehouse model with specific supply chain dimensions, measures, and KPIs (key performance indicators). Next, the paper describes two generic approaches for designing the KPI predictive data mining models based on the BI semantic model. KPI predictive models were trained and tested with a real-world data set. Finally, a specialized analytical web portal which offers collaborative performance monitoring and decision making is presented. The results show that these models give very accurate KPI projections and provide valuable insights into newly emerging trends, opportunities, and problems. This should lead to more intelligent, predictive, and responsive supply chains capable of adapting to future business environment.