Important of supply chain management in healthcare

organization
Healthcare Supply Chain Logistics is series of processes, workforce involved across different
teams and movement of medicines, surgical equipment, and other products as needed by
healthcare professionals to do their job. The aim of Supply Chain in Healthcare is to find the
vulnerabilities among departments and propose measures to reduce them. It aims to identify
weak areas to achieve targeted health outcome and increases investments in global health. The
advantages of efficient Supply Chain in Healthcare is improved processes, efficient utilization of
resources, satisfied employees, effective treatment and happy Patients. The significance of the
research paper is to analyze possible loopholes in the healthcare and recommended controls
which can be applied practically so as to bring improvement in the healthcare. In Hospitals
Integrated Supply Chain should be implemented to meet the objectives. The Supply Chain
ensures proper linkage of hospitals department, operations, revenue cycle. The Supply Chain
can be visualized as a back end program running which is necessary to integrate all the different
processes together. The supply chain implemented ensures availability of medicine/product at
right time, minimizing inventory wastage, maximizing patient care, coordination in all
departments minimizing human error/medication errors. This can be accomplished by using
possible measures i.e. integrating subsystems [10], streamlining workflow and use of RFID
technologies, standard product code, Global Identification number(GIN). Supply chain
management has evolved from manual, logistics- and mechanization-focused optimization to
modern, digital, and automated integration and coordination of all supply chain elements. It
plays a vital role in addressing the growing complexity of today’s global supply chains. Primarily,
it facilitates and optimizes the flow of products, information, and finances, allowing companies
to create better relationship value and improve overall business efficiency.
But to fully realize the potential benefits of SCM, companies should embrace a data-driven
approach, because data is the fundamental element in every supply chain. Data-driven SCM
allows for further competitive advantages such as seamless integration of business elements,
schema-on-read approach to supply chain data management, and real-time data transparency.
While having different IT systems to provide improved operational efficiencies within the supply
chain is a great first step, having them integrated with each other will lead to the most
successful outcomes.  Systems like iri supply can help integrate point-of-use data with the
electronic medical record, billing and materials management systems to automate the
management of expensive medical devices and supplies.  Taking advantage of these emerging
technologies to streamline the hospital supply chain will not only lead to better financial
outcomes, but also improved employee satisfaction and patient safety.  Make sure that your
supply chain IT strategy is well-defined and that you have a plan in place to have all of your
systems communicate with each other
Given that hospitals and other healthcare facilities exist only to provide care to patients, it can
come as a surprise to know that supply chain cost is typically the second largest expense such
facilities incur, exceeded only by the cost of labour. Perhaps even more surprisingly, efforts to
reduce healthcare supply chain costs were slow to gain momentum, at least compared with the
inroads made in other industries, The traditional hospital and healthcare supply chain model is
fragmented, hampered by conflicting goals and (in the main) operated under the auspices of
nobody in particular. Orders are typically placed by different factions within a single facility, and
fulfilled by multiple manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors.
In this traditional model of hospital and healthcare supply, the facility’s loading dock fills up fast
each day, with bulk deliveries and small orders arriving constantly, which must then be put
away in a warehouse or distributed around a campus.
On the one side there is the medical aspect, which calls for various specialised logistics
approaches, and on the other, the hotel/catering aspect. Patients after all, must be fed and
looked after for the duration of their stay in a healthcare facility.
As the necessity for meeting demand is similar in both government-run and private healthcare,
there is not too much difference in the way each sector operates the supply chain. Both types
of administration labour under similar pressures too, which is why healthcare systems around
the world are now paying more than lip service to supply chain simplification and
improvement. The extent to which healthcare systems are centralising distribution varies, but
in most developed countries at least, hospital supply chains are transforming, with the
following two models for example, becoming more prevalent
Supply chain management remains a challenge for health systems.  Progress in the
procurement of supplies, drugs, devices, and equipment has been achieved with the
development of Group Purchasing Organizations, which use purchasing power to negotiate the
lowest price on supplies for groups of health organizations.  However, the dominant focus on
price favours large multinational companies that can tolerate narrow margins, and therefore
limits access of health systems to innovative new companies with cutting edge technologies
who cannot compete on price. 
Strategies such as barcoding are used to track distribution of supplies for safety and
standardization across organizations.  Although there has been progress, many organizations
continue to rely on tracking supplies by hand, which too often result in shortages that can
compromise quality of patient care.  The supply chain process that ensures supplies, drugs, and
devices get from the loading dock into the hands of the health provider relies on staff to find
what they need on supply carts in order to care for their patients.  Imagine the automotive
assembly plant relying on workers to run back and forth to supply carts to find each hinge, bolt
or wiper blade in order to assemble and manufacture a vehicle. 
Retail stores, the automotive industry, even the travel industry have fully implemented supply
chain systems that are very impressive. So, why hasn’t the health care sector reaped similar
rewards using supply chain strategies?   Supply chain management in health systems needs to
focus on creating efficient environments for health providers to deliver excellent patient care. 
Cost savings and quality can be strengthened just by redirecting health professionals’ time from
looking for supplies to managing patient care. Furthermore, enabling traceability and tracking
can reduce errors and adverse events, which also reduces costs