The Role of Managing a Successful Healthcare Supply Chain

In this blog post, we will discuss the healthcare supply chain and provide tips to optimize supply chain efficiency. We will also introduce Viindoo supply chain management software for healthcare Software, a comprehensive solution that helps businesses in the healthcare industry efficiently manage their supply chain operations, gain insights, and predict market demands. Let’s explore!

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What is Healthcare Supply Chain Management?

The management of the hospital supply chain includes resource procurement, supplies management, and a set of interconnected procedures that enable healthcare workers to perform their tasks and enhance their productivity. The entire medical supply chain impacts the total cost, patient results, and service effectiveness.

healthcare supply chain

What is Supply Chain Management in healthcare?

The significance of managing the healthcare supply chain

COVID-19 related supply chain disruptions across the United States have expedited the need to optimize supply chain management. This is especially true for health systems that aim to provide high-quality care, ensure service availability, reduce cost and boost profitability. Over the course of the past few years, supply chain management has become a central focus due to increasing pressures to reduce cost from the pandemic, while improving patient outcomes and reimbursement. Supply chain management and optimization within health systems achieve these goals through improved data collection and employment, attentive vendor management, and incentive alignment.

healthcare supply chain

The significance of managing the supply chain in healthcare

How Does the Healthcare Supply Chain Work?

The supply chain in healthcare involves several stakeholders who have important roles in its operations. These stakeholders comprise:

Manufacturers: These are the laboratories, biologists, and vaccinologists responsible for researching, developing, manufacturing, and monitoring medical, surgical, and pharmaceutical supplies. They also keep track of potential shortages.

Distributors: This group includes logistic partners and wholesale distributors who sell, deliver, and monitor products while following proper procedures.

Providers: Providers such as pharmacies, hospitals, urgent care centers, assisted living facilities, long-term care facilities, and dialysis centers receive products from distributors to prescribe them to patients. They submit orders to distributors, keep an eye on inventory shortages, and request prescription refills.

Patients: Patients are the members of the community who use these products or services, and they have an impact on the demand for them.

healthcare supply chain

How Does the Medical Supply Chain Work?

How to Optimize Healthcare Supply Chains

Optimizing the pharmaceutical supply chain is essential to ensure that patients receive high-quality care. Although the medical supply chain has strict regulatory requirements, there are areas where it can be improved. Here are some tips to enhance efficiency in the supply chain:

  • Enhance Visibility:

Ensure that you have real-time information about the location of products in your supply chain and properly manage inventory. Gather data from different sources such as manufacturing sites, distributors, suppliers, products, modes, customers, and more. Then, use software platforms, artificial intelligence (AI), or third- or fourth-party services to improve your data analysis capabilities from end to end.

  • Consolidate Suppliers:

Optimize your supply chain in healthcare by managing your suppliers. Build partnerships with your suppliers to benefit all parties, retender to improve supplier competitiveness, and conduct performance reviews regularly.

  • Center Performance:

Define a hierarchy of outcome-based supply chain measures and create a KPI model focusing on quality, service, costs, and revenue. Capture real-time performance data to analyze the tradeoffs between KPIs.

  • Implement Standardization:

Standardize processes using a framework like the Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model to ensure uniformity and enforce standards across all areas of the supply chain.

  • Understand Costs

Collect data on your costs of goods and services, benchmark and assess the data, and look for patterns. Analyze invoices to identify non-standard patterns and implement new processes to eliminate waste.

healthcare supply chain

Optimize Supply Chains in Healthcare

Healthcare Supply Chains Management Software

Viindoo Supply Chain Management Systems is a comprehensive solution for managing the supply chain in the healthcare industry. Many businesses in this industry face challenges in managing their supply chain efficiently, such as broken information, ineffective communication, difficulties in gaining insights, and predicting market demands. The Viindoo SCM software addresses these issues by providing an efficient SME management solution.

The software offers a range of modules, including overall strategy planning, purchase management, manufacturing management, inventory management, sales management, and accounting and finance management. The modules are fully integrated, providing businesses with a standardized process and automated rules for every aspect of the supply chain. This integration ensures that businesses have a big picture of their operations, catch up with the rapidly changing market, and improve their competitiveness.

Viindoo SCM also provides businesses with the tools to collect, analyze, and assess customer trends and needs through data on location, purchase history, website visits, and more. With this information, businesses can design an overall strategy and develop an optimized and automated sales process to control order status closely, minimize risks, and optimize costs. The software also enables businesses to build a network of suppliers and helps to compare and evaluate supply capacity to select suppliers with competitive prices.

The software also helps businesses save time and effort by setting rules to activate replenishment requests and automating replenishment processes in multiple methods. Viindoo SCM enables businesses to control import-export-stock and supply the right merchandise with the right number within the right amount of time to meet all the needs of customers and serve the distribution strategies of enterprises.

healthcare supply chain Software

Supply Chains Management Software

In conclusion, effective management of the healthcare supply chain is crucial to provide high-quality care, reducing costs, and improving patient outcomes. To optimize the supply chain in healthcare, businesses can focus on enhancing visibility, consolidating suppliers, centering performance, implementing standardization, and understanding costs. Hopefully, this blog bring you valuable insight, and follow the Viindoo blog for more information in the future.

The Role of Managing a Successful Healthcare Supply Chain
Viindoo Technology Joint Stock Company, Monica Nguyen April 21, 2023

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