دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی شناسایی پایداری اجتماعی در زنجیره تامین بهداشت و درمان - الزویر 2018

Abstract

Social sustainability is concerned with the human side of sustainability. The literature indicates a growing movement towards adopting social practices in the supply chain, and despite the diffusion of the topic, it appears that social sustainability is relatively new in the service sector in general and in the healthcare sector in particular. This study explored this issue and identified the motivators, barriers, and enablers of social sustainability in a healthcare supply chain with the lens of “stakeholder theory” and a focus on four stakeholder groups: suppliers, employees, patients/community and owners/government. These aspects were further explored using a structured research method and specific research objectives. The SIPOC chart was used to list the healthcare suppliers, the inputs (such as employees) supplied and used by main processes in healthcare, the outputs (products and services) of these processes, and their customers (patients and community). This facilitates linkages of different supply chain stakeholders. This is exploratory research; data were collected from various departments of 10 hospitals of United Arab Emirates (UAE), and a comprehensive depiction of what drives, inhibits, and facilitates social sustainability practices in healthcare as perceived by all stakeholders’ groups was formulated. Study results confirmed that, while separate attention to each stakeholder group is important, a comprehensive analysis of all stakeholders’ perceptions of what constitutes a socially sustainable supply chain would offer more benefits and help hospital managers balance the expectations of all involved parties.

Conclusions

The framework of this study is meant to help the hospital prioritize the areas it needs to address. Motivators, obstacles, and facilitators mentioned in Figure 6 reflect those the hospital needs to emphasize by making major improvements to reach an acceptable level of performance in social sustainability. Setting priorities would help management allocate more resources and efforts to areas emphasized by all stakeholders. Once the supply chain reaches a level where it fulfils the areas identified by all stakeholders, it can move to focus on the other factors highlighted by group of stakeholders. For the framework to be effective, hospitals have to analyse their business strategies and sustainability initiatives to determine the facilitators that they already have and the facilitators they should improve; the motivators the company has offered to stakeholders and how effective they are, and the obstacles that the company faces while implementing social sustainability. Afterwards, it becomes easier to spot areas of improvement in the business strategy and the resources needed to make improvements. Changing or adjusting business strategy is an essential part of the whole process to ensure that social sustainability is at the heart of healthcare supply chain.