Track: Healthcare Systems

Abstract

One of the major challenges for the healthcare sector is to reduce cost of service and improve the quality of patient care. A large proportion of the operational budget of hospitals is being spent on hospital supplies and materials. Integration between supply chain partners has a profound impact on the organizational performance. However, there is a limited study conducted so far to assess the factors of supply chain integration in the context of healthcare system. Through an extensive literature review, four factors namely, logistics integration, information technology integration (IT), information sharing, and trust were identified as being crucial to hospital-supplier integration. It is hypothesized that logistics integration, level of IT integration, level of information sharing, and level of trust between hospitals and their supplier will be positively associated with hospitals supplier-integration. The hypotheses are tested using data collected from a quantitative survey administered to management personnel from Saudi Arabian hospitals. The analysis of the data indicates that logistics integration, level of IT integration, level of information sharing, and level of trust between hospitals and their suppliers are positively associated with hospitals supplier-integration.