Quality Measurement in the Healthcare Supply Chain

Abstract

The United States is actively attempting to reduce its national healthcare expenditures, which account for more than 16 percent of the gross domestic product. A significant cost and quality driver of the healthcare industry is the universal complexity of its supply chain. It has been suggested that even small gains in supply chain quality can produce major, long-term cost savings. The authors are currently engaged in a research effort to identify opportunities for quality improvement in the healthcare supply chain. Expert testimony reveals that the concept of healthcare supply chain quality measurement can be difficult to grasp. However, almost 90 percent of the respondents to the authors' recent survey of more than 1,000 healthcare supply chain professionals indicate that their organizations are measuring the quality of their supply chains in some manner. Using an adapted framework based on Garvin's eight dimensions of quality, the authors find that the quality metrics identified from the healthcare supply chain literature and their practitioner survey are focused on measuring the performance, conformance, and features of the healthcare supply chain.

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