Managing quality crossroads in healthcare: An integrative supply chain perspective

John W. Gardner, Kevin W. Linderman, Kathleen L. McFadden

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

Managing quality in healthcare involves critical decision making at the intersections of multiple supply chain and operations processes. These intersections occur within an interdependent healthcare system, where changes in one part of the system affect another part of the system. Building on an integrated supply chain perspective, the authors develop the concept of "quality crossroads" to explain crucial intersections between quality processes and those related to strategy, purchasing, operations, customer relationship, and logistics processes. These intersections form a network of crossroads in which decisions about quality can create substantial consequences throughout delivery systems. To explore and apply the concept of quality crossroads in healthcare, the authors review and examine research articles related to healthcare quality published in the Quality Management Journal. The authors also explore applications of quality crossroads in the articles found in this special issue on healthcare quality management. They find that existing works on healthcare more frequently address quality crossroads with strategy, operations processes, and customer relationships, but less often address crossroads with sourcing and logistics processes. The authors discuss these implications and propose multiple avenues for examining healthcare quality crossroads.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)2-17
Number of pages16
JournalQuality Management Journal
Volume25
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2018

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Business, Management and Accounting

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