مدیریت زنجیره تامین سلامت: بررسی ادبیات و برخی مسائل Healthcare supply chain management: literature review and some issues

1. Introduction Supply chain management (SCM) has been broadly practiced by many organizations. Over past decades healthcare sector is continuously facing challenges of increasing costs. Both researchers and practitioners have been increasingly focusing on various supply chain practices for SCM to cope with the continuous changes in their nature, context and requirements (Agami et al., 2012). Therefore, there is a need for a comprehensive review to reflect performance in healthcare environments. According to de Vries and Huijsman (2011), there is a fragmented interest in supply chains in health services as shown in the literature. As an indispensable management tool and the vehicle to achieve success, supply chain practices enable healthcare system to strategically manage and continuously control the desired objectives. Effective SCM can lead to lower the total amount of resources required to provide the necessary level of customer service and to improve customer service through increased product availability and reduced order cycle time while reducing costs (Banomyong and Supatn, 2011). The relative importance of SCM is on the rise, as it includes coordination and collaboration with channel partners, which can be suppliers, intermediaries, service providers and customers. Hospital supply chains are unique and different from the typical industrial supply chains in many aspects. It is a complex system that requires the flow of products, and services in order to satisfy the needs of those who serve patients (Schneller and Smeltzer, 2006). Further Zheng et al. (2006) discussed the importance of supply chain of healthcare products as different products are traded and distributed differently in a healthcare system. This paper reviews SCM practices, models and frameworks developed in certain databases, from 2000 to 2016, and surveys the applied approaches and techniques. The purpose of this study is to investigate: (1) the relationship between supply chain practice and supply chain performance (SCP) in the healthcare industry; (2) the influence of supply chain practice on healthcare SCP; and (3) the impact of supply chain practice on healthcare organizational performance (OP). The organization of this paper is as follows: the next section presents various connotations given by various researchers; about SCM, frameworks of SCM then a literature classification scheme is explained and a research agenda is suggested after identifying the gaps and finally develop a conceptual framework to show the effect of supply chain practices (SC) on healthcare OP.