Centralised healthcare supply networks for efficient and sustainable drug management: An Italian case study

Abstract

This study aims at investigating the logistic performance of centralised healthcare supply chains and quantifies consequent benefits on the entire system sustainability. The focus is on drug inventory management and distribution inside a network of hospitals, re-designed and optimised by applying a hub and spoke perspective coupled with logistics outsourcing. An Italian HSC is analysed by a multi-method simulation modelling in order to understand the overall sustainability of the new integrated supply chain. The findings provide a comprehensive analysis of the total savings obtained: increased opportunity for healthcare professionals to focus on patient care, financial savings in terms of a reduction in annual public expenditure (–25.8%) and transportation emissions reduction inside cities (–32%). The paper suggests to managers and logisticians that more attention needs to be paid to measuring the actual sustainability of HSCs, suggesting new logistics improvements. The work is might be easily extendable to similar cases.