A Study on Hospital Supply Chain Management

Abstract

The concept of Supply Chain Management which is traditionally applicable to manufacturing industry can also improve the overall operations of service industry, especially the healthcare industry. In order to get a more comprehensive understanding of hospital supply chain management and to identify the major players and their roles, this study looks into the supply chain process and the major players of the hospital supply chain in private hospitals in Bangladesh. The study initially focuses on exploring the existing literature on hospital supply chain management and subsequently, analyzes the effectiveness of the hospital supply chain process focusing on the key suppliers of the hospital industry. This research is a descriptive study, based on primary and secondary data. Primary data was collected through semi-structured questionnaire and in-depth interviews from respondents from several private hospitals in Bangladesh. The researchers have proposed a conceptual framework depicting a holistic view of Hospital Supply Chain Management and then an Integrated Private Hospital Supply Chain Management (IPHSCM) model was developed. The result of the study illustrates the efficiency of this chain is quite satisfactory. The study thus provides a comprehensive idea about the current supply chain process of private hospitals in Bangladesh. In addition, the study helps to identify the sectors where the concepts of supply chain can be applied in order to improve their operational excellence. This study has also created scopes of further studies on service supply chain management, more specifically hospital supply chain management. However, this study was limited to only private hospitals in Bangladesh. Further research can be done in this sector using the IPHSCM model developed by the researchers.