Blood Supply Chain Risk Management using House of Risk Model

Abstract

Managing blood supply chain has been an important task in the healthcare system because it has to confront not only blood demand and supply uncertainties but also complexities in blood inventory management. In order to overcome these challenges, it is essential to explore the possible risks that could occur in the blood supply chain and discover proper ways to manage these risks. Therefore, this research aims to investigate risks in blood supply chain by using a proactive risk management tool called ‘house of risk’ (HOR) model, in order to conduct risk assessment and evaluate risk management actions. A case study of blood supply chain risk management was analyzed, and the HOR model was incorporated to appraise the appropriate actions in the real situation. The results indicate that there are 30 risk events and 16 risk agents identified and assessed in the case study. The outcomes point out that lack of collaboration, insufficient information for decision-making, and limited information sharing are the top 3 risk agents that contribute to significant impact on blood supply chain management. Risk mitigation and management actions were evaluated and the results show that enhancing the collaboration is the most proactive action to manage risks in the blood service operations, followed by information sharing, and demand and supply statistical analysis. The study has recommended the outlines for improving collaboration between blood service organizations by using information system and technology to mitigate risks, complexities, as well as uncertainties in managing demand and supply in the blood supply chain.

Developing a Risk Reduction Support System for Health System in Iran: A Case Study in Blood Supply Chain Management

“…The expiration of blood will result in an increase in the cost of blood transfusions [ 22 ]. There are several potential risks associated with blood function that can impair the healthcare network’s overall performance [ 23 ].…”

“…Risk analysis was performed using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), rating scale, and SAW. Boonyanusith and Jittamai [ 23 ] examined the risks involved in the BSC to assess risks and evaluate their management practices using HOR. Mora et al [ 30 ] used FMEA to evaluate potential failures and improve blood transfusion safety in an urban hospital.…”

“…A review of the blood-related literature indicates that most of the previous studies focused on a part of an SC and only a few studies have discussed the issue of risk in the blood SC [ 23 , 28 , 29 ]. Furthermore, only a few studies in this field, such as Jaberidoost, Olfat, Hosseini, Kebriaeezadeh, Abdollahi, Alaeddini, and Dinarvand [ 29 ], have used MCDM methods to identify risks.…”

A structured approach to analyse logistics risks in the blood transfusion process

“…Among recent contributions, Boonyanusith and Jittamai 21 propose a risk management framework addressing the entire blood supply chain from collection to transfusion. In particular, they develop and test with a case study a proactive risk management framework articulated in two steps.…”

“…Furthermore, a reactive attitude to risk is quite diffused when tackling blood transfusion. As a matter of fact, most of the studies about errors and adverse events in Table 1 are based on past occurrences and just some of the discussed risk management contributions take a proactive perspective 6,21 . The reviewed works often limit the risk management process to the response identification and implementation phases, without assessing the performance of such actions and the new risks that might arise as a consequence of them.…”