18 | MedBioTech J. 2021; 5(4): 18-24
MBTJ, 5(4): 18-24, 2021
Research Paper
An Investigation of Hospital's Sustainable Supply
Chain through System Dynamics Model
Milad Abdolmohammadi
a
, Ahmad Riahi
b*
a
Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Payam Noor University (PNU), Tehran, Iran
b
Department of Medical Science, Islamic Azad University Yazd Branch, Iran
*
Corresponding Author (riahi.ahmad.k@gmail.com)
Received: 11 September 2021 Accepted: 03 October 2021 Published: 06 December 2021
Abstract
The supply chain in healthcare is unique and different from other supply chains in many respects.
Today, the concept of a new sustainable supply chain has been widely discussed. Hospitals and
treatment centers have the highest energy consumption compared to other service providers;
Hospitals are considered as sources of waste production in cities. Cost plays a vital role in their
performance and healthcare due to providing services to patients, and the number of its high staffs has
a high societal impact on the community than other services and the satisfaction of the stakeholders,
especially the patients, including the challenges Is. Therefore, achieving sustainability in the supply
chain of health care is essential and essential. The sustainable social dimension is one of the crucial
areas in the supply chain of health and treatment. As the patient satisfaction index is an essential factor
in the social dimension of supply chain health, the employee satisfaction index is also necessary. In
addition to the social dimension, the economic dimension is also partly explained in the causal chart,
which is indicated by the B/C indicator that shows the benefit-cost ratio in the hospital. In this paper,
the variables related to the sustainability and social-economic dimension of their relationships in the
supply chain of the hospital are examined using the system dynamics approach.
Keywords: Hospital Supply Chain, Sustainability, Patient Satisfaction, Staff Satisfaction, System
Dynamics.
How to cite the article:
M. Abdolmohammadi, A. Riahi, An Investigation of Hospital's Sustainable Supply Chain through System Dynamics
Model, Medbiotech J. 2021; 5(4): 18-24. DOI: 10.22034/MBT.2021.140297
©2021 The Authors. This is an open access article under the CC By license
1. Introduction
The healthcare supply chain has a complexity
compared to other industries and, despite its
importance, has received less attention in studies.
Flows in the healthcare supply chain include
physical products, financial flows, and information.
The primary goal of health care organizations is to
improve community health, patient, and staff
satisfaction in the workplace. Sustainability in the
supply chain means pushing the supply chain
towards the social, economic and environmental
aspects of the supply chain and resolving problems
in these dimensions in the traditional supply chain
(1). Organizations need to change their supply
chain based on environmental protection and
improve their social and economic performance
with new management practices. Little research
has focused on the sustainable healthcare supply
chain based on three economic, social, and
environmental dimensions. The three dimensions
of sustainability are interrelated and reinforce
each other (2). As an essential part of the health
care system, as well as delivering quality health
care, health centers as an essential part of their
supply chain can reduce their environmental