헬스케어 공급망 리스크 주요 이슈 분석: 뉴스기사를 중심으로

This study investigates the major risk issues and their causes in healthcare supply chains, using network analysis and qualitative analysis of news media publications, and then proposes response and operational strategies for managing healthcare supply chain risks. We divided our study into two time periods for a comparative analysis of key risk issues in different degrees of environmental uncertainty. The year 2020 marked the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. The first period of our analysis is four years covering 2016-2019, prior to COVID-19 disruptions. The second period is also four years during 2020-2023 when the full force of COVID-19 disruptions affected healthcare supply chains. The keywords used to collect news media publications were “healthcare,” “healthcare industry,” “healthcare services,” “hospital,” “health center,” and “medicine.” The results of the study indicated that the major risks experienced in healthcare supply chains were due to the following factors: the type of patients who needed healthcare services, care services provided (lab tests, treatment, prescriptions, etc.), care service methods used (surgery, utilization of medical devices), and examination and diagnostics (clinical kits, etc.). While these factors were identified as possible causes of risk in the healthcare supply chains involving procurement of supplies and raw materials, these risks tend to intensify in the increased disruption period (year 2020-2023). Managing these risk issues in the disruptive periods contributes significantly not only to the performance of healthcare organizations but also to the well-being of the society at large. This study offers theoretical implications in that it analyzes the causes of risks in the healthcare supply chains and provides a basis for a comparative analysis of the relationships of risk factors in healthcare supply chains during a normal environment and a very disruptive environment. From a practical perspective, this study suggests effective countermeasures for managing healthcare supply chain risks with examples that can be used as a guideline by healthcare executives, managers, and policy-makers of healthcare services.