Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Health-care logistics redesign

  • Original Article
  • Published:
OR Insight

Abstract

The focus of this paper is improvement of the effectiveness, efficiency and utilization of a UK Primary Care Trust's logistical assets – with respect to both patient and non-patient logistics. The Trust has a Strategic Plan to improve the participation in, and quality of, health care for those in its catchment area. Particular priorities from the plan are the timely and convenient provision of accessible care in the right setting, the improvement of treatment outcomes and efficiency in health-care provision. The focus of the project report is on the logistical needs of care in the community, preparing the way for the construction and implementation of an all-encompassing logistics solution adapted to the needs of an area with particular problems resulting from high social deprivation and high ethnic minority content. The paper demonstrates how the application of improvement techniques can focus efforts to improve performance.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Figure 1
Figure 2

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Title was ‘Healthcare operations service redesign and implementation’.

References

  • Bamford, D. and Chatziaslan, E. (2005) Matching demand and capacity of patient services within the UK National Health Service, Proceedings of European Operations Management Association (EurOMA) 2005 Conference; Budapest, Hungary, pp. 2159–2168.

  • Bamford, D., Thornton, H. and Bamford, J. (2008) UK Healthcare Logistics and Patient Transport Systems, Proceedings of European Operations Management Association (EurOMA); Groningen, The Netherlands.

  • Bolton Hospitals NHS Trust. (2006) Annual Report and Summary of Accounts, http://www.boltonhospitals.nhs.uk/publications/default.htm#.

  • Burkhardt, J.E. (2006) Medical transportation: Challenges of the future. Community Transportation 24 (4): 32–35.

    Google Scholar 

  • Department of Health. (2004) Driving change – Good practice guidelines for PCTs on commissioning arrangements for emergency ambulance and non-emergency transport services.

  • Department of Health. (2006) Annual report.

  • Department of Health. (2007a) National Patient Choice Survey. England, July 2007.

  • Department of Health. (2007b) Supply Chain Excellence Programme.

  • French, W. and Bell Jr, C. (1990) Organization Development: Behavioral Science Interventions for Organization Improvement, 4th edn. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harrison, A. and Van, R.H. (2002) Logistics Management and Strategy. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Health Development Agency. (2004) NHS as partner – pooling resources, http://www.library.nhs.uk/healthmanagement/ViewResource.aspx?resID=264391.

  • Initiative for Sub-District Support. (1997) Transport management: A key component of effective health care, http://hst.org.za/uploads/files/kwiksk6.pdf/.

  • Lodge, A. and Bamford, D. (2008) Using lean techniques in radiology waiting time improvement: A case study. Public Money and Management 28 (1): 49–52.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moore, N. (1983) How to do Research. Library Association Publishing Limited.

    Google Scholar 

  • Natarajan, R.N. (2006) Transferring best practices to healthcare: Opportunities and challenges. The TQM Magazine 18 (6): 572–582.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • North West Centre of Excellence (NWCE). (2006) Good Practice Paper. Integrated Transport Units, September.

  • Perrin, A., Rolland, N. and Stanley, T. (2007) Achieving best practices transfer across countries. Journal of Knowledge Management 1 (3): 156–166.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Radnor, Z., Walley, P., Stephans, A. and Bucci, G. (2006) Evaluation of the Lean Approach to Business Management and its use in the Public Sector. Scottish Executive, Edinburgh: Scottish National Parliament.

  • Remenyi, D., Williams, B., Money, A. and Swartz, E. (1998) Doing Research in Business and Management. London: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seddon, J. and Caulkin, S. (2007) Systems thinking, lean production and action learning. Action Learning: Research and Practice 4 (1): 9–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • The NHS Confederation. (2006) An NHS confederation leading edge report: leaning thinking for the NHS. ( http://www.nhsconfed.org/issues).

  • Womack, J.P. and Jones, D.T. (2003) Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation. London: Simon & Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester, Booth Street West, Manchester, M15 6PB, UK

    David Bamford

  2. Bradford and Airedale Teaching Primary Care Trust, Douglas Mill, Bowling Old Lane, Bradford, BD5 7JR, UK

    Helen Thornton & James Bamford

Authors
  1. David Bamford
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Helen Thornton
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. James Bamford
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Bamford, D., Thornton, H. & Bamford, J. Health-care logistics redesign. OR Insight 22, 140–152 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1057/ori.2009.3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/ori.2009.3

Keywords

Search

Navigation