Viable healthcare supply chain network design for a pandemic

Mehdi Alizadeh; Mir Saman Pishvaee; Hamed Jahani; Mohammad Mahdi Paydar; Ahmad Makui

doi:10.1007/s10479-022-04934-7

Viable healthcare supply chain network design for a pandemic

Ann Oper Res. 2022 Sep 9:1-39. doi: 10.1007/s10479-022-04934-7. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Mehdi Alizadeh¹, Mir Saman Pishvaee¹, Hamed Jahani², Mohammad Mahdi Paydar³, Ahmad Makui¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Industrial Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran.
² School of Accounting, Business Information, and Supply Chain, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.
³ Department of Industrial Engineering, Babol Noshirvani University of Technology, Babol, Iran.

Abstract

The recent COVID-19 pandemic revealed that healthcare networks must have a flexible and effective structure. In this study, we develop a viable healthcare network design for a pandemic using a multi-stage stochastic approach. We propose a multi-level network that includes health centers, computed tomography scan centers, hospitals, and clinics. Patients have conditions to returning to normal life or quarantining at home. Three objectives are defined: maximizing the probability of patient recovery, minimizing the costs of all centers in the network, and minimizing the Coronavirus death rate. We investigate a real case study in Iran to demonstrate the model's applicability. Finally, we compare the healthcare supply chain network design in a pandemic with a normal situation to advise how the network can continue to remain viable.

Keywords: COVID-19; Multi-stage stochastic programming; Supply chain network design; Viable healthcare.