Analysis and modelling of materials management processes in healthcare

Materials management is a great issue for healthcare systems because it influences performances of structures in terms of clinical and financial outcomes. Before selecting, adapting and implementing leading or optimised practices, it is necessary to develop a good understanding of processes and activities in place (Landry and Philippe, 2004). In real applications, information flows and business strategies involved are practically different from hospital to hospital depending on context, culture and resources available and this is the reason why it is really difficult to find a comprehensive and exhaustive description of processes, even less a clear formalization of them. The objective of this paper is twofold: first of all, it proposes an integrated and detailed analysis and description of the hospital materials management data and tasks - able to tackle information from patient requirements to usage, from replenishment requests to supplying and handling activities - according to medical risk reduction, traceability and streamlined processes perspectives; second, it translates this knowledge into a business process model formalization. The study can provide a useful guide to the various technology-related, management and business issues, laying the foundations of an efficient reengineering of supply chain that reduces healthcare costs without affecting the quality of care (Jarrett, 1998), but improving it instead.