Inventory Management Applications for Healthcare Supply Chains

Recently, the healthcare industry has started using inventory management applications to achieve efficiency and effectiveness in its supply chains. There is a rapid growth in the demand of drugs and diagnostic systems within the healthcare industry. The biggest challenge for health care supply chains is to manage inventory efficiently and keep up the satisfactory service level at the same time. In order to meet the increased demand of healthcare products, healthcare supply chain professionals must find efficient and effective ways to improve and optimize inventory. Moreover, perishability and disposability of many medical products have been major problems in healthcare supply chain management. The current managerial practices and conflicts among different stakeholders in health care supply chains are directly associated with the issue of inventory management. This literature review will introduce various inventory management applications that are mainly focused on minimizing inventory costs and increasing overall efficiency in healthcare supply chains. The uses of simulation, new technologies to track healthcare products, new managerial practices, optimization, and information sharing techniques have been discussed throughout this literature review. We have also discussed pharmaceutical inventory management strategies in great detail, as pharmaceuticals are one of the main products of healthcare supply chains

Toward a More Strategic National Stockpile

The COVID–19 pandemic exposed major deficiencies in the United States’ approach to stockpiling for emergencies. States, cities, and hospitals across the country had meager inventories of critical medical items on hand when the pandemic first reached U.S. soil, and the federal government’s Strategic National Stockpile proved far too small to serve the country’s needs in the first several months of the crisis. As nationwide shortages spread, many state governments were compelled to bid against each other to procure scarce medical supplies—a distribution approach that disadvantaged low-income and minority communities and left countless healthcare professionals and staff ill-equipped to protect themselves against a deadly virus. These severe supply shortages, which hindered the country’s early pandemic response, have since generated an unprecedented push to reform the nation’s stockpiling policy structure. This Article uses a simple cost-benefit model to highlight shortcomings in the existing U.S. stockpiling policy regime and to identify specific avenues for addressing them. Among other things, U.S. stockpiling policies need to better account for important differences in the rotatability of supplies and should incentivize more private stockpiling of the most rotatable emergency items. Targeted reforms of commandeering laws and price-gouging restrictions could further strengthen private incentives to stockpile and may even help to clarify how states and the federal government share responsibilities in the nation’s stockpiling effort. And much more federal support is needed to incentivize the build-out and maintenance of domestic supply chains for the least-rotatable emergency goods. Such tailoring of policies and programs to better fit the unique attributes of stockpiling activities can help ensure the nation is far better equipped to respond the next time disaster strikes

Analysis of a rotating advanced-technology space station for the year 2025

An analysis is made of several aspects of an advanced-technology rotating space station configuration generated under a previous study. The analysis includes examination of several modifications of the configuration, interface with proposed launch systems, effects of low-gravity environment on human subjects, and the space station assembly sequence. Consideration was given also to some aspects of space station rotational dynamics, surface charging, and the possible application of tethers

Supply chain management of blood products: a literature review.

This paper presents a review of the literature on inventory and supply chain management of blood products. First, we identify different perspectives on approaches to classifying the existing material. Each perspective is presented as a table in which the classification is displayed. The classification choices are exemplified through the citation of key references or by expounding the features of the perspective. The main contribution of this review is to facilitate the tracing of published work in relevant fields of interest, as well as identifying trends and indicating which areas should be subject to future research.OR in health services; Supply chain management; Inventory; Blood products; Literature review;

Emergency Management Training and Exercises for Transportation Agency Operations, MTI Report 09-17

Training and exercises are an important part of emergency management. Plans are developed based on threat assessment, but they are not useful unless staff members are trained on how to use the plan, and then practice that training. Exercises are also essential for ensuring that the plan is effective, and outcomes from exercises are used to improve the plan. Exercises have been an important part of gauging the preparedness of response organizations since Civil Defense days when full-scale exercises often included the community. Today there are various types of exercises that can be used to evaluate the preparedness of public agencies and communities: seminars, drills, tabletop exercises, functional exercises, facilitated exercises and full-scale exercises. Police and fire agencies have long used drills and full-scale exercises to evaluate the ability of staff to use equipment, protocols and plans. Transit and transportation agencies have seldom been included in these plans, and have little guidance for their participation in the exercises. A research plan was designed to determine whether urban transit systems are holding exercises, and whether they have the training and guidance documents that they need to be successful. The main research question was whether there was a need for a practical handbook to guide the development of transit system exercises

The six domains of athletic training: A guide to the profession of athletic training

The six domains of athletic training are injury prevention, clinical evaluation and diagnosis, immediate care, treatment, rehabilitation and reconditioning, organization and administration, and professional responsibility. To educate the public about the profession, explaining these six domains can help identify the areas athletic trainers are proficient in. Each domain is different and describes a specific aspect of the profession of athletic training. Together they help to shape and define the profession of athletic training. Not only do the six domains guide athletic training on a big scale, but they can also be found everyday in the athletic training rooms and clinics of certified athletic trainers across the nation. From giving an athlete a Band-Aid to writing an injury report to spine boarding an athlete, every action an athletic trainer performs fits into one of the six domains

The Orthopedic Athletic Trainer's Handbook.

Ph.D. Thesis. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa 2017

Stockpiling Supplies for the Next Influenza Pandemic

Faced with increasing concerns about the likelihood of an influenza pandemic, healthcare systems have been challenged to determine what specific medical supplies that should be procured and stockpiled as a component of preparedness. Despite publication of numerous pandemic planning recommendations, little or no specific guidance about the types of items and quantities of supplies needed has been available. The primary purpose of this report is to detail the approach of 1 healthcare system in building a cache of supplies to be used for patient care during the next influenza pandemic. These concepts may help guide the actions of other healthcare systems

Critical analysis of disaster management plan in a tertiary care hospital

Background: Disaster in hospital is when the resources of the hospitals (infrastructure, trained manpower and organization) are over-whelmed beyond its normal capacity and additional contingency measures are required to control the event. The calculation of hospital treatment capacity provides a baseline for Hospital Administration to plan accordingly. Critical anaylsis of the disaster management strategies as per the hospital emergency response checklist – an all hazards tool for hospital administrators and emergency managers helps in identifying the gaps and strengthening the disaster management plan.Methods: The study is a retrospective analysis of the response of a tertiary care hospital vis a vis hospital emergency response checklist.Results: The disaster preparedness was analyzed according to the hospital emergency response checklist and gaps were identified.Conclusions: The need for a comprehensive and easily deployable disaster management plan cannot be emphasized enough. The tools of continuous quality improvement can be used and analysis may be used to further strengthen the plan.

BUREAUCRATS AS PURCHASERS OF HEALTH SERVICES: LIMITATIONS OF THE PUBLIC SECTOR FOR CONTRACTING

Contracting out of health services increasingly involves a new role for governments as purchasers of services. To date, emphasis has been on contractual outcomes and the contracting process, which may benefit from improvements in developing countries, has been understudied. This article uses evidence from wide scale NGO contracting in Pakistan and examines the performance of government purchasers in managing the contracting process; draws comparisons with NGO managed contracting; and identifies purchaser skills needed for contracting NGOs. We found that the contracting process is complex and government purchasers struggled to manage the contracting process despite the provision of well-designed contracts and guidelines. Weaknesses were seen in three areas: (i) poor capacity for managing tendering; (ii) weak public sector governance resulting in slow processes, low interest and rent seeking pressures; and (iii) mistrust between government and the NGO sector. In comparison parallel contracting ventures managed by large NGOs generally resulted in faster implementation, closer contractual relationships, drew wider participation of NGOs and often provided technical support. Our findings do not dilute the importance of government in contracting but front the case for an independent purchasing agency, for example an experienced NGO, to manage public sector contracts for community based services with the government role instead being one f larger oversight. © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.