Supply Chain Coordination in Hospitals

Abstract

This paper presents an innovative approach to support the definition of strategies for the design of alternative configurations of hospital supply chains. This approach was developed around a hybrid Tabu Search / Variable Neighbourhood Search metaheuristic, that uses several neighbourhood structures. The flexibility of the procedure allows its application to supply chains with different topologies and atypical cost characteristics. A preliminary computational experience shows the approach potential in solving large scale supply chain configuration problems. The future incorporation of this approach in a broader Decision Support System (DSS) will provide a tool that can significantly contribute to an increase of healthcare supply chains efficiency and encourage the establishment of collaborative partnerships between their members.

An iterated greedy algorithm with variable neighborhood descent for the planning of specialized diagnostic services in a segmented healthcare system

“…An application of VNS in healthcare facility location was presented by Marić et al [15], who developed a hybrid metaheuristic based on combining the evolutionary approach with modified VNS for determining the location for long-term healthcare facilities. Rego and de Sousa [24] presented a hybrid Tabu search/VNS metaheuristic for the design of alternative configurations in a hospital supply chain.…”

Simulation and Modeling Efforts to Support Decision Making in Healthcare Supply Chain Management

“…They also need to investigate and validate solutions for different types of SCM problems without carrying out “trial and error experiments.” Not only because this approach is costly, but it is also extremely risky since the timely availability of products through healthcare SCM is often a matter of life or death to the patients. In this area, simulation and modeling (SM) has been presented as an alternative approach to assess solutions and to support decision making, risk management, and cost effectiveness analysis associated with various healthcare SCM problems [ 9 , 10 ].…”

“…Therefore, healthcare SCM is different from SCM in other industries as it handles a diversity of items in widely varying quantities in response to the large number of diagnosis types and procedures. It is highly influenced by multifaceted legislations and by the central role of healthcare professionals [ 10 ]. While patients are the end consumers of products supplied through SC, they have no control on selecting these products.…”

“…Rego and Sousa in [ 10 ] also dealt with logistic process optimization, however with redesigning the whole configuration of the hospital SCM. The main problem of current hospital SC configuration lies in the lack of coordination between the strategic decision level and the operational decision level.…”

A systematic literature review of healthcare supply chain and implications of future research

“…The different terminologies for supply chain (SC) exercised in healthcare sector by various researchers in their research work are healthcare SC (Kwon et al , 2016; Azadeh et al , 2016; Wijewardana and Rupasinghe, 2016; Ghorani, 2015; Kumar and Kumar, 2014; Guimarães and Carvalho, 2013; Al-Karaghouli et al , 2013; Mathew et al , 2013; Miah et al , 2013; Kritchanchai, 2012; Mustaffa and Potter, 2009; Zheng et al , 2006), pharmaceutical SC (Sabegh et al , 2017; Papert et al , 2016; Parmata et al , 2016; Singh et al , 2016; Papalexi et al , 2016; Narayana et al , 2014; Rossetti et al , 2011; Wyld, 2008; Shah, 2004), hospital SC (Supeekit et al , 2016; Chen et al , 2013; Rachmania and Basri, 2013; Rego and de Sousa, 2009; Toba et al , 2008), drug SC (Mensah et al , 2015; Pinna et al , 2015; Patel et al , 2009), vaccine SC (Lee and Haidari, 2017; Sarley et al , 2017; Kartoglu and Milstien, 2014), lean SC management in healthcare (Hatibu, 2015; Adebanjo et al , 2016) and agile SC management in healthcare (Mehralian et al , 2015).…”