Organizational Configuration of Logistics Activities in Healthcare Institutions

Within hospitals, supply chain activities support the clinical mission of these organizations. As a result, the departments in charge of supply chain activities often lack the attention of top hospital management. This situation hinders the implementation of best practices that can enhance healthcareHealthcare supply chain performance. This chapter offers an integrated understanding of the dynamics of supply chain activity configurations in hospitals. The research adopts a qualitative approach “based on” the case study of the public healthHealth system of a Canadian province and the systematic observation of six units of analysis to understand the evolution of their supply chain activity configurations. The results of the study show that the knowledge acquired in the logisticsLogistics function, the experience of the supply chain manager and his team, and political maneuvers influence the configuration of logistics activities. The study also underlines that the new configurations provided a foundation for improving organizational performance.