A process reference model for hospital supply chain of pharmaceutical products

Abstract

© 2018 KIIE An implementation of business process reengineering (BPR) is more complex in healthcare than other industries. Interdepartmental collaboration and acceptance of change are essential requirements. To achieve success, a prerequisite tool should be provided in the form of a process reference model (PRM). The structure of a competent PRM that includes necessary components is firstly proposed by consideration of the crucial requirements for BPR in healthcare systems. According to the proposed PRM structure, a Hospital supply chain PROcess reference Model of pharmaceutical products (H-PROM) has been constructed through an empirically based method. The heart of H-PROM is presented in this paper. Initially, a process reference framework is framed as a skeleton of the model. Then the core hospital tasks are defined and described in detail. Furthermore, these reference tasks are also represented in the form of a standard business process diagram using business process modelling notation (BPMN). These contributions can benefit a process engineer or an organisation from the developed PRM, in order to quickly understand the hospital supply chain system and accept change. Besides, this approach can be a way to propose the key ingredient for facilitating BPR in other healthcare processes.