An investigation of government and private hospitals' supply chain management

Health services have exceptional importance in service industries since they serve human health and public welfare. Successful health services are required to be of high quality, efficient and consistent, while economics principles are taken into account. Supply chain management is considered as a mean to attain all of these conditions. Considering that logistics management is an important function in hospital management, this paper examines the potential reasons for logistical differences between government and private hospitals in Erzincan, Turkey. There are different variables that may cause these differences such as: a logistics department's area of responsibility, like procurement, goods receiving, internal distribution, and information technology systems; the quantity of pharmaceutical products distributed; the level of corporation among hospitals and their suppliers; the previous and future plans of hospitals in developing the logistics management. Therefore, this study provides an appraisal of healthcare supply chain management by underlining the areas of improvements and determining obstacles for applying logistics management practices. © 2014 IEEE.