Advanced services in hospital logistics in the German health service sector

Abstract

Decision-makers in hospital management are currently facing the challenge of improving hospital services with respect to the equity, efficiency, costs and quality of health care. This entails ensuring that the required resources are available at each point of care while taking qualitative and economic criteria into consideration. Hospital decision-makers have certain priorities regarding the supply of resources to the different departments of a hospital, and the question is as follows: What are the developmental options to expand the current capabilities of the hospital contract logistics service providers on the basis of the priorities of the decision-makers in the German hospital sector? Therefore, it is necessary to identify the different needs and perspectives of the hospital, the management and the health professionals. Additionally, factors important for the design of supply chains provided by external contractors need to be identified and possible further develop ments described. Structured interviews with German hospital management and logistics service providers were carried out as part of a long-term study from 2004 to 2010. The demands, aims and strategies of both the providers and customers were a particular focus. It was found that the wide range of different goods supplied and the various hospital objectives require different varieties of logistics services design. It also became clear that particularly logistics fields seen by the management as having middle-to-low priority are contracted out. At the same time, external contracted logistics service providers also strive to offer a wide range of comprehensive services

Sustainable Supply Chain Management Practices and Sustainable Performance in Hospitals: A Systematic Review and Integrative Framework

“…The proposed framework is composed of two main blocks: practices and performance, whose corresponding exploded views are depicted in Figure 5 and Figure 6. For practices, contributions that conceptualize the logistics management process and supply chain integration [3], health care operations management [123], and hospital logistics [124] were considered. Accordingly, components traditionally related to internal supply chains, namely purchasing, warehousing and inventory, and transportation and distribution management, are placed at the center, and serve the care units through which patients flow, which include emergency, outpatient, diagnostic and therapy, operating theater, and inpatient [123].…”

“…Undirected arcs connect these units, which means the multiple directions in which patient flow occurs, since varied medical needs create customized sequences [125]. Clothes and laundry management as well as general services management are included, along with medical goods, food, energy, water, and waste management, since they are considered hospital logistic fields [124], account for resource consumption, and influence healthcare delivery, quality of patient care, and patient satisfaction [123]. In addition, strategic management and leadership, as well as information flow and technology management are key constituents of the framework, as they can influence and support supply chain relationships.…”

Benchmarking logistics services in German hospitals: A research status quo

“…As a result the necessary resources and production factors (for instance patients, staff, information, and medical devices) are not always available at the points of care in hospitals [3]. But this availability is necessary to ensure optimal treatment.…”

“…There are different traditional benchmarking methods [2] but a research gap opens up in the area of benchmarking logistics services in hospitals, e.g. patient transport or catering logistics [3].…”

Rational and participative task allocation between the nursing staff and the logistics support service provider in healthcare

“…Traditionally, support service functions have been organized by an internal operator in a hospital. However, recent findings question the efficiency of internally produced services (Kriegel, Jehle, Dieck, & Mallory, 2013). In practice, it is common for certain services to be outsourced to external operators, while others are produced in-house.…”