Cognizant healthcare logistics management: ensuring resilience during crisis

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to convey a message of preparedness and mitigation to key stakeholders throughout the healthcare community concerning healthcare supply chain readiness and preparedness.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a review of existent literature, this work examines and expounds upon the impact of effective supply chain management processes in disaster mitigation and planning.

Findings

This paper presents a discourse in supply chain managers' involvement in disaster planning, identifying courses of action, and collaboratively planning for crisis. Logistics is a specific genre of skill sets within healthcare operations.

Practical implications

Key tenets of logistics readiness and preparedness are often missed when developing strategies for disaster mitigation. While this discussion is directed specifically toward healthcare management, the principles are applicable across a wide array of industries.

Social implications

Disaster affects everyone and is likely to occur in any type of organization. Leaders have an inherent responsibility to plan for both expected and unexpected events; the latter can present complexities that require intuitive reaction provided scenarios have been considered in advance. Arguably, the critical path to success involves effective process management and collaborative communications across multiple echelons of managerial responsibilities.

Originality/value

Few works were found concerning healthcare supply chain management involvement in disaster readiness. In an applied sense, this paper provides healthcare managers with concepts related to effective crisis mitigation.

Citation

VanVactor, J.D. (2011), "Cognizant healthcare logistics management: ensuring resilience during crisis", International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, Vol. 2 No. 3, pp. 245-255. https://doi.org/10.1108/17595901111167114