Abstract
Healthcare is a service commonly associated with lacking performance in relation to output and the economy of production. Contingency theory and complex systems thinking are approaches here combined to study the logistics of healthcare service flows. Contingency theory directs attention to networked interdependencies while complex systems thinking concerns process emergence and flexible resource use in supporting logistics. This hybrid form of analysis gives conceptual direction to information technology development and use to support the logistics of healthcare services. Three small examples of healthcare service as logistics processes in their as-is state are provided and analysed based on the developed analytical framework. These illustrate in detail what exemplifies complexity in this industry. Given the inherently complex nature of many types of healthcare services, this discussion concerns how to conceptually model information systems in healthcare services as a complex system. This chosen complexity-sensitive approach of service logistics constitutes a basis for information technology enabled healthcare service development sensitive to this type of service provision directing focus to the emergent features of healthcare service needs. It is also a basis for further investigation into this topic of information technology use to support the inherent logistical complexity of healthcare services.
Highlights
1.1 BackgroundContemporary management of healthcare services involves using large amounts of time and resources
In this study we provide more detail to the cases, more through analysis and conceptually model the healthcare services process pointing to how healthcare services may be treated as complex systems
Four medicine storerooms were located in the outpatient department (OPD), and one medicine storeroom was located in the inpatient department (IPD)
Summary
Contemporary management of healthcare services involves using large amounts of time and resources. Healthcare management normally follows a predominant deterministic approach. This means that detailed planning visible as more or less rudimentary budgets based on historical data leave practitioners having to solve operational medical issues as they arise based on intuition combined with use of often archaic and difficult to use computer software. Given the lack of time most healthcare practitioners have in their practice, learning to develop healthcare service is mainly found as trial and error cognitive processes. Healthcare services vary greatly in their predictability. They always have some degree of uncertainty associated with them. This ad-hoc scenario at healthcare institutions and in the increasing use
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