A changing supply chain for a changing health care system: Barriers and facilitators of implementing enterprise...

No studies have examined how health care mergers and acquisitions affected the hospital supply chain and its employees since the passing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

To describe the barriers and facilitators of digital transformation in a hospital supply chain from the employee perspective.

We conducted two rounds of interviews, one year apart, with supply chain employees at an urban academic health system preparing to adopt an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software (N = 11 in Round I and N = 8 in Round II). Two researchers coded transcripts for themes using NVivo 11.

We identified the following barriers to technology integration: silos between supply chain groups (e.g. Purchasing, Information Management, Strategic Sourcing), between employees and management, and resulting from prior mergers; focus on short-term problems and fear of change; and lack of transparent communication about upcoming changes. Facilitators of technology integration included motivation to work in supply chain; long-term vision that allowed tolerance of change and positive outlook; and transparent communication.

Desire for shared leadership among employees emerged as a major theme, indicating the need for active involvement of employees during transition to new integrative technology.