Background: The concept of supply chain management is to coordinate and collaborate among supply chain players in order to achieve system efficiency. Supply chain coordination and collaborations deal with the connection of operations throughout the chain with material and information flowing smoothly across these supply chain operations in achieving efficiency. Healthcare supply chain is one of such complex systems involving many stakeholders in the supply chain. Coordinating a single platform for these stakeholders is a challenge by achieving smooth flow of operations on this platform. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore the operations in this healthcare supply chain materials and information flows across the players at two levels, macro and micro perspective. Methods: The supply chain infrastructure enabling efficiency is investigated in the hospital environment. Multiple case studies have been conducted at 13 hospitals which include secondary hospitals and primary hospitals. Triangulation techniques, including interviews, site visiting and document analysis, are employed for data collection so as to enhance reliability and validity of the study. Results and conclusions: The study found that the healthcare supply chain efficiency could be achieved at 2 levels, namely supply chain level and firm level. The main concerns of the organizations of both levels are process efficiency and patient safety.

中文翻译：

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医疗保健供应链管理：宏观和微观角度

背景：供应链管理的概念是在供应链参与者之间进行协调和协作，以实现系统效率。供应链的协调与协作处理了整个链中各个运营之间的联系，使物料和信息在这些供应链运营中顺畅地流动，从而实现了效率。医疗保健供应链就是这种复杂的系统之一，涉及供应链中的许多利益相关者。通过在该平台上实现平稳的运营流程，为这些利益相关者协调单一平台是一项挑战。因此，本文的目的是从宏观和微观两个层面探讨参与者在医疗保健供应链中的运作和信息流。方法：在医院环境中研究了提高效率的供应链基础设施。在包括二级医院和基层医院在内的13家医院中进行了多个案例研究。三角测量技术，包括访谈，实地考察和文件分析，被用于数据收集，以提高研究的可靠性和有效性。结果与结论：研究发现，医疗保健供应链效率可以在两个层次上实现，即供应链层次和企业层次。各级组织的主要关注点是过程效率和患者安全。现场访问和文献分析被用于数据收集，以提高研究的可靠性和有效性。结果与结论：研究发现，医疗保健供应链效率可以在两个层次上实现，即供应链层次和企业层次。各级组织的主要关注点是过程效率和患者安全。现场访问和文献分析被用于数据收集，以提高研究的可靠性和有效性。结果与结论：研究发现，医疗保健供应链效率可以在两个层次上实现，即供应链层次和企业层次。各级组织的主要关注点是过程效率和患者安全。