Information sharing and coordination in a vaccine supply chain

Abstract

Vaccination is a well-known method to protect the public against an epidemic outbreak, e.g., COVID-19. To this end, the government of a country or region would strive to achieve its target of vaccination coverage. Limited by the total vaccine capacity of public hospitals, the government may need to cooperate with private hospitals or clinics for more vaccination. Exploring in this paper government coordination of public and private resources for vaccination, we model a vaccine system consisting of a public hospital, a profit-maximizing private clinic, and self-interested individuals, under three scenarios: (1) without information sharing (concerning vaccine inventory and vaccine price), (2) with information sharing and subsidy, and (3) with information sharing and allocation. We find that, under scenario (1), the vaccine demand is fully satisfied by the public hospital and the private clinic cannot make any profit. Under scenario (2), the private clinic is willing to enter the vaccine market with a positive profit-maximizing vaccination coverage. Under scenario (3), the socially optimal vaccination coverage may be lower than that under scenario (1). Moreover, we conduct a sensitivity analysis to generate practical implications of the research findings for vaccination policy-making. Our results provide both theoretical and managerial insights on vaccine supply decision, government intervention, and vaccination coverage.

Uptake of Influenza Vaccine and Factors Associated with Influenza Vaccination among Healthcare Workers in Tertiary Care Hospitals in Bangladesh: A Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study

“…Influenza vaccination coverage among HCWs in public hospitals was higher than in private hospitals (14.4% vs. 10.0%). This finding was consistent with a study conducted in Hong Kong that found poor vaccine coverage in private health facilities [ 45 ]. This finding implies that along with the government, the onus for improving vaccination coverage in HCWs is also on private facilities in Bangladesh, as they need to ensure improved flu vaccination coverage [ 46 ].…”

Validation of Instrument Measuring the Impact of SCM Practices and SCM Agility on Competitive Advantage and Organization Performance in Indian Pharmaceutical Firms

“…Customer Relationship includes a set of practices that are used to build lasting customer relationships, manage customer queries and those that improve the overall customer satisfaction and customer loyalty (Gil-Gomez et al, 2020; Khan et al, 2022). The level of information sharing (IS) can be explained as the level to which an organization shares exclusive and critical data with its partners (Alzoubi & Yanamandra, 2020; Pan et al, 2023). The currency of information is often important, especially in rapidly changing environments (Dwivedi et al, 2020).…”

An incentive mechanism contract model to coordinate a vaccine supply chain under demand uncertainty

“…Thus, the authors propose a buyback-and-late-rebate (BLR) contract and prove that a correctly constructed BLR contract can coordinate the supply chain and allow complete profit distribution amongst supply chain participants. Pan et al (2022) in their model comprising government hospitals, private clinics and self-interested individuals, consider three possible scenarios: (1) no information is shared; (2) information is shared and subsidized; and (3) information is shared and allocated. The results reveal that in scenario (1), the government hospital can meet all of the demand for vaccines, whereas the private clinic would make a loss.…”