OBJECTIVES:

To recognize and map the hospital drugs and medical devices supply chain process.

METHODS:

In order to collect qualitative and quantitative data, ad hoc internet-based survey has been designed and submitted by Italian Association of Hospitals (FIASO) to its associates. The quantitative part of the survey (made up of 61 questions) gathered organizational and managerial information about hospitals and warehouses. The second part (29 questions) explored the qualitative aspects of the supply chain process as appropriateness, critical issues and satisfaction with respect to the managerial action.

RESULTS:

Both qualitative data from 56 hospitals (21 University Hospitals UH, 33 Local Health Authorities LHA, 2 Broad Intraregional Areas* BIA) and quantitative from 39 hospitals(15 UH, 22 LHA, 2 BIA) have been collected in 15 and 13 regions, respectively. UH and LHA have been split into 3 clusters based on annual medicines and medical devices revenue: cluster 1 (0-50 million €) 10 UH,16 LHA; Cluster 2 (50-100 million €) 5 UH,12 LHA; Cluster 3 (> 100 million €) 6 UH, 5 LHA. A more conspicuous purchase value of 65 million € characterized BIA. The responding personnel are mainly technical operators (72%) and administrative staff (18%). A half of hospital facilities experienced a drug theft in the last 5 years and 70% of them possesses insurance against theft. The survey pointed out that the higher the revenue of the facility, the higher the productivity (KPI - key performance indicators). On half of the responders, the level of satisfaction towards the managers’ action is medium and on a third is high.

CONCLUSIONS:

In the first phase of this wide and ambitious project come out that the main weaknesses of Italian supply chain is related to infrastructures, human resources, IT, dedicated staff. The study enables to recognize supply chain process and critical issues.

*centralized organization structure