As medical facilities seek to enhance operational efficiency and cost-effectiveness while improving patient care, executives are exploring restructuring their healthcare supply chain management.
Technology is vital in achieving these goals, enabling increased efficiency and effectiveness in healthcare supply chains. Despite advancements in areas like patient portals and electronic health records (EHRs), hospitals have yet to fully embrace technology in one critical aspect: inventory management or supply chain management (SCM).
This article emphasizes the importance of adopting technology in healthcare supply chains and explores how it can enhance development.
Understanding the Healthcare Supply Chain
The healthcare supply chain encompasses the complex network of systems, elements, and procedures responsible for producing, distributing, and delivering medications and other healthcare supplies to patients.
Through built-in safeguards, this intricate global system ensures timely production and distribution, even during pandemics or natural disasters. The healthcare supply chain participants include pharmaceutical quality standard developers, hospitals, health systems, pharmacies, manufacturers, and distributors.
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The Role of Supply Management in Healthcare
Supply management in healthcare identifies vulnerabilities within departments and proposes solutions to mitigate them, aiming to achieve desired health outcomes and optimize financial support for global health.
An adequate supply chain improves operations, resource utilization, staff satisfaction, treatment outcomes, and patient satisfaction. It integrates hospital departments, operations, and revenue cycles, as a crucial backend application for seamless integration.
The Cruciality of Technology in the Healthcare Supply Chain
Integrating disruptive technologies like data analytics, AI, IoT, and Blockchain into supply chain management systems fosters efficient operations, heightened security, and rapid growth in the global healthcare sector.
The healthcare supply chain management market is projected to grow from $2.2 billion in 2020 to $3.3 billion by 2025, driven by cloud-based solutions, cost reductions, increased efficiency, and overall profitability. Embracing SCM technology proves highly advantageous for improving people’s lives and drives the market’s expansion.
Conclusion
Incorporating cutting-edge technologies such as AI, Blockchain, automation, data analytics, IoT, and RFID into healthcare supply chain management systems can significantly enhance efficiency.
By following the steps outlined above and carefully selecting the appropriate technologies, healthcare organizations can revolutionize their supply chain processes. Embracing technology strengthens the healthcare supply chain and enables improved patient care, reduced errors, and overall operational excellence.