Risk Management
Introduction
Risk management in nursing encompasses many challenges that face the patients and medical fraternity, which can be either external or internal. Internal risk includes delayed communications, varying capacities among others. External risks entail competition, prices, medicine supplies, and distance from the hospitals. Nursing profession may encounter failures that may affect the hospital financially and possibly harm the patients (Sodhi, 2012). Therefore, for efficient in the nursing profession there has to be a safeguarding of the supply chains of medical needs to reduce losses and increase efficiency in treatment of patients. War and terrorism hinder the supply chains of medicine and this discourages any trading among businesses (Slack, Jones and Johnston, 2013). War situations present a situation where hospitals are looted, a case to consider is Sudan, where the fighting factions loot hospitals and kill the sick. Thus insecurity comes in as a risk. Therefore, hospitals have to be well equipped to cater for the patients in their care. In addition, political problems in a country, fire incidences are also potential areas that can affect hospitals operations. The risk of being infected by disease is very potent in nursing. This demands that the nurse take care not to come in contact with the fluids from the patients specially when carrying out treatment or administering drugs to the patient. . This paper will review how St. Mary’s hospital and how it has addressed some of the supply chain risks medical supplies. In addition, the paper will provide three cases where similar approaches have been used to mitigate supply chain risks.
Risk Management Issue at St. Mary’s
Risk management entails the use of protective measures against risks associated with activities being carried out by an organization (Slack, Jones and Johnston, 2013). These risks emanate from the nature of business being undertaken by a firm. Risk management is a management function that is critical in discovering the level of uncertainties that a business and its operations are prone to in any given situation. In addition, risk management helps in determining the solutions needed to alleviate or lessen the negative impacts and increase the positive impacts (Slack, Jones and Johnston, 2013). Therefore, the activities geared towards lessening risks and the negative impact they may have becomes dominant in carrying out risk management. This ensures that the project is profitable to the community and the cost of keeping out the risk is manageable to the Hospital (Slack, Jones and Johnston, 2013). The challenge of supply chain disruptions is real for St Mary’s hospital. Timely supply of needed medicines and equipment for administering treatment is crucial for the effective running of the hospital. This ensures that patients are treated on time and those in critical conditions are catered for as quickly as possible. The availability of medical supplies determines the patient’s fate especially those who are in critical condition is critical for St. Mary’s Hospital because it is a competitive tool that ensures products reach the market at the right time. Any delays will mean products will reach the hospital late, which creates serious and dangerous situations that risk the lives of the patients (Slack, Jones and Johnston, 2013).
Managing Global Suppliers to Mitigate Risks
The improvement of supply chain issues revolves around the areas that the hospital is trying to make some changes (Slack, Jones and Johnston, 2013). The hospital has come up with various methods that it used in getting supplies. Medical supplies are procured from the suppliers who need to be informed on time before supply is made. The sooner the suppliers are informed the better. They act on the demand and make sure that the hospital receives the supplies as soon as possible. Hospitals mostly deal with the same products and thus it is common to find that they have the same needs. There is much competition in the hospitals since they have to demand for the same products and since there are many hospitals some may end up with a shortage in supplies especially those that are located in remote areas. This becomes a risk in itself (Slack, Jones and Johnston, 2013). One profound effects of globalization is the shift of production to transitional economies, which has led to a decrease in associated costs. Despite such benefits, risks of inconsistencies in quality of products, culture, political risks, as well as disruptions in the supply chain are some of the issues that the hospital has to deal with urgently.
The hospital has taken several initiatives to address these supply chain risks such as buying from global suppliers and seeking partnerships with new suppliers. Shifting to new suppliers makes sure that the hospital gets supplies at the right time, thus minimising cases of delays in administering treatment to their patients (Seifert and Isaksson, 2013). In addition, new suppliers help St. Mary’s Hospital diversify supply chain risks. The increase in efficiency in the supply chain ensures that the hospital meets its demands on medicine and implements needed to function on day to day basis. Knowing the suppliers and keeping them makes the hospital have the needed supplies for its operations (Seifert and Isaksson, 2013).
Another benefit for choosing other suppliers is that St. Mary’s Hospital deal with the community in regard to treating normal ailments and a bit of surgery. As noted above, the Hospital competes with several other hospitals in getting supplies for its operations. Therefore, St. Mary’s Hospital should not waste more time dealing with other hospitals. Therefore, to be competitive in upcoming markets, St. Mary’s Hospital must enhance its capacity issues urgently. This will only be made possible by having several suppliers that will ease capacity constraints so that St. Mary’s Hospital can shift more focus and be efficient in dealing with various maladies (Seifert and Isaksson, 2013). Therefore, seeking additional suppliers is critical for St. Mary’s Hospital because it will give the Hospital more control over its supply chain at a time when increasing demand for medical is at a high.
In today’s nursing profession, efficiency of operations is of paramount importance. However, the exchange of data within the Hospital and other players in the supply chain is not an easy task as it is accompanied by costly programming within departments (Sodhi, 2009). Implementing a uniform knowledge management platform is critical in helping St. Mary’s Hospital transfer and share relevant information and knowledge with other partners in the supply chain. The supply chain of the hospital includes other players like dispensaries, clinics and pharmacies.
The adoption of knowledge management practices and principles at St. Mary’s Hospital as well as the subsequent automation using collaborative knowledge portals has helped St. Mary’s Hospital achieve a more cost-effective , efficient and competitive supply chain (Seifert and Isaksson, 2013). However, the implementation of knowledge management at St. Mary’s Hospital is not free of challenges. Therefore, proper guidelines for the full implementation and adoption of Knowledge management should be addressed.
The application of knowledge management tools has also been used by others companies to deal with supply chain risks. One such Hospital is Malmo University Hospitals health facility that suffered delays occasioned by fire in one of the suppliers’ facilities. Numerous theories are critical in the supply chain operations of St Joseph’s health Facility. Malmo University Hospitals integrated its S&OP and the collaborative planning, forecasting, and replenishment (CPFR) model to share market intelligent with the other hospitals in order to get more information and manage the supply chain process (Kato, 2013). In addition, the business continuity management model (BCM) ensures Malmo University Hospital can deal with a situation in a way that minimizes risks (Jansson and Norrman 2003). The Hospital understands the challenges of fire outbreak in the supply chain (slack, J. and Johnston 2013) as it happened in the Albuquerque accident. Using the BCM approach, the Hospital will be in a position to ensure continuity of business operations as it deals with the risk at hand. There are also other areas that can help Malmo University Hospital in identifying risks that can affect its supply chain. Political instability in a company affects the supplies of medicine to the hospital and this causes delayed treatment which can be can have catastrophic results. Risk mapping will help the Hospital identify and quantify the probability of risk in a given country (slack, Jones and Johnston 2013). This can be done by using fault tree analysis (FTA) or the event tree analysis (ETA), which are used to research factors and causes that lead to accidental events (Jansson and Norrman 2009).
The current supply-chain risk management approach is based on feedback-loops between the various players in the supply chain. The process includes identification, assessment, treatment, and monitoring of risks using FTA and ETA (Nilson & Mattias, 2013). These processes ensure minimal disruptions in the supply chain.
Other companies that have put in mechanism to deal with supply chain risks include Maryland Health facility. The company, like St. Mary’s Hospital and Malmo University Hospital, face the threat of supply chain disruptions from various sources, including natural disasters, political upheaval, fires, and supplier inefficiencies among other factors. The active strategy embraced by these companies is similar to what St. Mary’s Hospital has done. They have backup suppliers spread across the globe (Sodhi, 2012).
Conclusion
The challenge of an effective supply chain is real for St. Mary’s Hospital. Poor working conditions and supply disruptions can lead to poor performance in dealing with their patients. For instance, the competition posed by rivals hospitals and other health facilities can put St. Mary’s Hospital’s operations at a high risk. To overcome these problems, St. Mary’s Hospital has taken measure to diversify its supply network. Some difficulties in the implementation of knowledge management might include lack of capacity by partners within the supply chain. This strategy is not unique to St. Mary’s Hospital Inc. as other companies such as Malmo University Hospital and Maryland Health facility have also taken similar initiatives to mitigate against supply chain disruptions.
References
Nilsson J. and Mattias S. (2013). Mapping of the supply chains to Malmö University Hospital in connection to risks and risk management. Lund. Sweden.
Seifert, W. R. and Isaksson, H. D., (2013). The Perks and Pitfalls of Knowledge Diffusion in the Supply Chain. Retrieved from http://www.imd.org/research/challenges/TC079-13-knowledge-diffusion-in-supply-chain-seifert-isaksson.cfm
Slack, N, Jones, B. A., and Johnston, R. (2013). Operations management, London: Pearson Education Limited.
Sodhi, M. M. S., & Tang, C. S. (2012). Managing supply chain risk. New York: Springer.
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