No abstract

The concept of Supply Chain Management has become increasingly important in healthcare and notably in hospitals. Information along the supply chain is the key element for analysis and improvement purposes. The aim of the study is to analyze and visualize the material flow at a Norwegian hospital to identify the possibilities and benefits in current and future planning and operation. The integration of IT enables combining material and information flow. Statically analyses of the material flow can support in planning and control of the logistics activities. The visualization of the material flow can support to take long-term decisions e.g. for distributing departments at the hospital.

Intermediate care units have been established as a response to the emerging challenges of healthcare systems to maintain high quality and continuous care. While the term is well known in both literature and practice, it lacks a unified definition. There is no common consensus of how intermediate care units can be successfully implemented and properly utilized in healthcare systems. Large variations of services in intermediate care units can be found. This literature review has structured the existing research on intermediate care units, identifying the possibilities and benefits of intermediate care units in healthcare systems from a logistics perspective. The main findings discussed in this study concern the following topics: the effect of intermediate care units on healthcare system performance and patient outcomes, and potential users of and services provided by intermediate care units. This study presents the state-of-the-art research on intermediate care units and suggests topics for further research.

Hospital laboratories are facing challenges of increasing demand and limited budgets. Planning and control can improve resource utilization, reduce work-in-progress and shorten throughput times, but to achieve such benefits, there is a need for a strategic fit between the planning and control system and the unique planning environment of the hospital laboratory. Existing research on planning environments focuses mainly on manufacturing companies, whereas hospital laboratory planning environment research is scarce. The aim of the study is to characterize a hospital laboratory's planning environment based on an exploratory case study. The findings indicate an overall strategic fit of the case laboratory's planning environment, but a lack of strategic fit between large batch sizes and low set-up times. Hospital laboratory planning environment research must be further developed through multiple case studies, as hospital laboratories are different in service provision and organizational structure. This study increases knowledge on planning environments in hospital laboratories, and suggests topics for future research.

In order to match financial sustainability with the delivery of highquality healthcare hospitals need to seek efficient ways of managing inventories with a large variety of medical supplies. To find a balance in the trade-off between cost and service levels that ensures on time and high-quality patient treatment is a challenge. It is especially crucial in the hospital setting, where the consequence of a stock-out can be much more severe than lost revenue. The process of ensuring that the required supplies are available at the right time is a particularly important supporting role within hospital logistics. The scope of this study is inventory control at the point-of-use inventories in hospitals. It concerns the short-term planning and control area, which focus on coping with actual demand and making necessary changes in order to match efficiently to plans. This study aims to model the inventory control process and discuss how technology can support high availability of medical supplies in hospitals.