Blockchain-Enabled Secured Medical Supply Chain Management

Abstract

The medical supply chain management revolves around regulating medical goods and services from the producer to the ultimate user. The supply chain could be defined as a set of resources required to deliver products and services to the customer. Supply chain management is a complex and fragmented process in the medical industry. The medical supply chain enables the procurement of the required resources and delivery of the necessary equipment to the patient by ensuring that the healthcare facility has the required inventory. To complete the process, information and physical goods regarding medical services and products go through a personalised regress process based on the needs of manufacturers, hospitals, providers, insurance companies and regulatory agencies. However, promoting efficiency in the medical supply chain creates substantial opportunities for reducing costs across the organisation by hospitals and private practitioners. The medical supply chain involves the management of downstream and upstream relationships with customers and suppliers to deliver optimised customer value at less cost throughout the supply chain. The standards of the hospital are focused on making sure that the physicians are giving priority to the customers. Medical supply chain management revolves around distributing and procuring medical equipment from the inventory to the patient. The healthcare organisation needs to address the logistic issues, leading to increased supply costs which prevent them from meeting the quality standards within their budgets. This contributes to the complexity of medical supply chain management. However, medical supplies are not managed, which could lead to inadequate data reporting, poor standardisation of products, lack of automation in the process, and increasing requirements for regulation.