Shih Stephen C, Rivers Patrick A, Hsu H Y Sonya
School of Information Systems and Applied Technologies, College of Applied Sciences and Arts, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 62901-6615, USA.
Health Serv Manage Res. 2009 Aug;22(3):140-50. doi: 10.1258/hsmr.2009.009003.
To gain and sustain competitive advantage, health-care providers have to continuously review and renovate their operational and information technology (IT) strategies through collaborative and cooperative endeavour with their supply chain channel members. This paper explores new ways of enhancing a health-care organization's responsiveness to changes and increasing its competitiveness through implementing strategic information technology alliances among channel members in a health-care supply chain network. An overview of issues and problems (e.g. bullwhip effect, negative externalities and free-riding phenomenon in multichannel supply chains) presented in the health-care supply chains is first delineated. This paper further goes over the issues of health-care supply chain coordination and integration for strategic IT alliances, followed by the discussion of the spillover effect of IT investments. A number of viable IT practices (such as information sharing and Internet-enabled supply chain portal) for effective health-care supply chain collaboration and coordination are then examined in this research. Finally, the paper discusses how strategic IT alliances can help improve the effectiveness of health-care supply chain management.
为了获得并维持竞争优势，医疗保健供应商必须通过与供应链渠道成员的协作与合作，持续审查和更新其运营及信息技术（IT）战略。本文探讨了通过在医疗保健供应链网络中的渠道成员之间实施战略信息技术联盟，来增强医疗保健组织对变化的响应能力并提高其竞争力的新方法。首先阐述了医疗保健供应链中出现的问题和难题（如多渠道供应链中的牛鞭效应、负外部性和搭便车现象）。本文进一步探讨了战略IT联盟的医疗保健供应链协调与整合问题，随后讨论了IT投资的溢出效应。本研究接着考察了一些可行的IT实践（如信息共享和基于互联网的供应链门户），以实现有效的医疗保健供应链协作与协调。最后，本文讨论了战略IT联盟如何有助于提高医疗保健供应链管理的有效性。
