Development of causal model of sustainable hospital supply chain management using the Intuitionistic Fuzzy Cognitive Map (IFCM) method

Purpose: Service industry is a massive sector accounting for about two-thirds of GDP of developed economies and is the field of an intensive competition between service companies and their supply chains. As a result, service supply chain management has become a subject of growing interest to researchers and business analysts. Healthcare industry is among the largest service industries with the highest potential for improvement in sustainability performance. The purpose of this study was to identify the concepts influencing the sustainability of hospital supply chain and provide a causal model for sustainable supply chain of hospital service. two aspects of contribution are identified for this research. Design/methodology/approach: In this study, concepts that influence the sustainability of a hospital service supply chain were identified by in-depth interviewing of 18 experts in hospitals of Kerman, Iran. Delphi method was used to reorganize the initial concepts into 15 concepts, Thus, a framework for sustainable supply chain of the hospital is proposed in the present study. This is the first contribution of this study. The second contribution is using the intuitive fuzzy cognitive map method for the relationship between extracted concepts. Findings: Delphi method was used to reorganize 68 initial concepts into 15 concepts Contains: demand management, resource and capacity management, customer relationship management, supplier relationship management, service management, information management, financial performance management, Attention to the environment, contamination, energy consumption, legal requirements, employees, community and stakeholders, social accountability and business ethics. The results indicate that service delivery management is highly central among other concepts. Originality/value: with focusing on concepts such as service management, and capacity and resources management, The sustainability of the hospital supply chain can be improved.