• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.145-155
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• 2019

The Healthcare supply chain management has recently attracted attention as a critical tool to improve service quality and reduce healthcare operational cost. Improving large hospital supply chain performance has become increasingly important as healthcare organizations strive to improve the service quality, while reducing the ever-increasing healthcare cost. This paper explores the strategic areas where the traditional supply chain management may enhance the overall performance of the large hospitals. Based on the literature review and relevant case analysis, this paper argues that the visibility, information sharing and standardization are the critical factors for deploying the supply chain principles, and also proposes the supply chain framework for efficient planning and execution, the use of RFID-enabled system for the end-to-end traceability of medical products, and cross-docking system for minimizing the inventory level in the hospital supply chain. Implications of the study findings are discussed.