Healthcare centers tend to face a severe problem of wastefulness in terms of supply utilization. As a result, it leads to considerable financial losses since the medicaments are not used and later discarded. Thus, it is vital to advance the supply chain management in order to avert growing medical costs from the amount of wasted and dumped pharmaceutical materials. Healthcare institutions should also tackle the issue of products shortage due to the global pandemic to reach a decrease in financial losses.
To begin with, hospitals need to partner with reliable suppliers not only on the domestic market but also on the global one. The diversification of markets and operations might also be beneficial in seeking products that local suppliers do not have in sufficient amounts (Rehman & Ali, 2021). Moreover, such an improvement might be reasonable for reducing medical costs since the global markets might offer lower prices for the same medications and pharmaceutical materials (Rehman & Ali, 2021). As a result, the healthcare institution might be able to develop agility and resilience in their management. For instance, due to the Covid-19 global pandemic, there was a high demand for masks and ventilators, and thus, hospitals did not have them in sufficient amounts worldwide (Zhu et al., 2020). However, with the market diversification and suppliers’ diversification, it is possible to seek the required products on the abroad markets.
Furthermore, in order to improve communication with global suppliers, the hospital must implement telecommunication software to monitor and analyze the availability of specific materials among partners. It is also crucial to implement bar code scanners to track and record supplies stored at the healthcare center (Bvuchete et al., 2020). Therefore, the institution needs to develop manual or computer-based recordkeeping systems to ensure an efficient method of products monitoring (Bvuchete et al., 2020). For instance, by enforcing such a system, it seems less challenging to analyze what medicaments should be purchased as their amount is low (Bvuchete et al., 2020). This way, the hospital can also research which pharmaceutical materials are abundant.
As a result, through efficient supply monitoring, the hospital might decrease the financial losses provoked by the wastefulness of pharmaceutical materials and products. The hospital must have access to the data to analyze the need to purchase specific medicaments (Bvuchete et al., 2020). Consequently, as the supplies are systemized and sorted, the healthcare institution might not face the problem of growing medical costs due to the abundant amounts of products (Bvuchete et al., 2020). This way, the hospital might ensure scarce supplies allocation and solve pharmaceuticals, inventory, and equipment wastefulness.
To sum up, the diversification of suppliers and markets is beneficial for the healthcare institution since it can seek products on global markets if the domestic ones are short on them. Thus, the hospital can develop agility and resilience if the healthcare sector faces the problem of specific products shortage, as it happened with masks and ventilators during the Covid-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the hospital must enforce bar code scanner systems to ensure an efficient method of supplies tracking. As a result, the issue of pharmaceutical materials and equipment wastefulness might be tackled as the institution will have access to data on medicaments availability. Consequently, the hospital might be able to identify the need to purchase specific materials if their amount is considerably low. Overall, such improvements are crucial for decreasing medical costs and the utilization of medical products in the healthcare sector.
References
Bvuchete, M., Grobbelaar, S. S., & Van Eeden, J. (2020). Best practices for demand-driven supply chain management in public healthcare sector: a systematic literature review. South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, 31(2), 11-27. doi: 10.7166/31-2-2006
Rehman, O., & Ali, Y. (2021). Enhancing healthcare supply chain resilience: decision-making in a fuzzy environment. The International Journal of Logistics Management. doi:10.1108/IJLM-01-2021-0004
Zhu, G., Chou, M. C., & Tsai, C. W. (2020). Lessons Learned from the COVID-19 Pandemic Exposing the Shortcomings of Current Supply Chain Operations: A Long-Term Prescriptive Offering. Sustainability, 12(14), 1–19. doi:10.3390/su12145858