Developing a Risk Reduction Support System for Health System in Iran: A Case Study in Blood Supply Chain Management

Area of Science:

• Health Systems Management
• Supply Chain Risk Management
• Operations Research

Background:

• Health systems are vulnerable to unanticipated risks, compromising service reliability.
• Existing risk assessment tools in healthcare, especially for blood supply chains, fail to consider risk interdependence and a holistic perspective.
• This limitation hinders effective risk management strategies within critical health infrastructures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and implement a novel systemic framework for semi-quantitative risk assessment in supply chains.
• To address the limitations of current methods by incorporating risk interdependence and a holistic viewpoint.
• To apply this framework to the Iranian Blood Supply Chain (BSC) for practical risk evaluation.

Main Methods:

• A novel systemic process, SSM-SNA-ISM (SSI), was employed for risk identification and assessment.
• Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) was used for initial supply chain and risk identification.
• Social Network Analysis (SNA) identified relationships between risks, followed by Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) and MICMAC analysis for in-depth risk levelling.

Main Results:

• The proposed systemic approach effectively assesses supply chain risks (SCRs), particularly when dealing with a large number of risks.
• Considering risk interdependencies and adopting a holistic perspective enhances the accuracy and effectiveness of risk assessment.
• Resolving fundamental blood supply chain risks requires significant management expertise.

Conclusions:

• The study proposes a novel systemic approach to supply chain risk identification and evaluation, utilizing systems thinking tools.
• This framework offers a new perspective on supply chain risk modeling, enhancing management capabilities.
• The research identifies specific risks within the Iranian Blood Supply Chain (BSC), contributing practical insights.