EBusiness in Healthcare : From eProcutement to Supply Chain Management

When speaking about eBusiness as applied to the healthcare market two questions arise immediately. Firstly, what is eBusiness? Secondly, why is eBusiness in healthcare different from eBusiness in other sectors? Within the arena of eBusiness in healthcare, the focus is on purchasing and selling online as the most advanced application. In this book, the Authors consider both the perspective of the healthcare providers and that of the suppliers, showing the interdependencies between the two and developing concepts for a new synergistic cooperation. **eBusiness in Healthcare** raises awareness of and interest in electronically mediated business processes in healthcare to a large audience including healthcare informaticians, medical business managers, clinicians, pharmacists and scientists. By taking an international approach to the topic the authors demonstrate the many similarities of eBusiness problems and their solutions among different countries which permits analysis of the differences that are often defined by the national healthcare systems and their rules. Case studies from healthcare institutions and from suppliers in the US, the UK and Germany will illustrate the achievements, barriers and future plans, thus enabling newcomers to learn from previous experience. Clinicians will gain significant insight by this book which demonstrates the interconnection between patient care processes and management issues at the level of medical supplies. The book also makes a plea for a multidisciplinary effort, to enable the right product to be procured for the right patient. As a rather new discipline, eBusiness in healthcare needs further scientific backing. Against this background, this book will not only provide answers but will also raise questions for future research. Managing change and innovation and establishing the critical mass for eBusiness in healthcare is a major undertaking. The aim of this book is to support this process. eProcurement in Healthcare is a book that aggregates 5 years of experience of three successive R and D projects (ELCH, GetTogether, GROPIS) covering technical and organizational issues of eProcurement. The projects, which were funded partly by the government and partly by industry and hospitals, looked at the characteristics of procurement processes and at standard technologies. Two of the projects included case studies (ELCH, GROPIS), the third project focused on the development of standard business objects for eProcurement in healthcare (GetTogether). Together they form a rich source of information worth communicating to a large audience of experts and newcomers alike. Results from the projects are supplemented by the contributions of international experts and their particular views on eProcurement, which gives the book a global perspective and hence allows its readers to learn from a variety of different approaches. Each chapter of the book is structured in a way that satisfies the needs of executives as well as academics. A management summary, tables and graphics together with key statements of experts allow the quick reader to capture the main message of each chapter, whereas background information and reference to the literature address readers who wish to gain a deeper and more comprehensive insight into the field. The management summary and the expert statements will appear in boxes separated from the main text by visual cues, e.g. background color, font size, font type. Front Matter....Pages I-XXVIII Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Introduction to eBusiness....Pages 3-26 Opportunities of Supply Chain Management in Healthcare....Pages 27-56 Business Process Analysis....Pages 57-77 Front Matter....Pages 79-79 Integrated Information Systems....Pages 81-101 Achieving Interorganizational Connectivity....Pages 103-125 From Product Identification to Catalog Standards....Pages 127-154 Front Matter....Pages 155-155 The Evolution of eBusiness in Healthcare....Pages 157-176 An Integrated Strategy for eProcurement: The Case for Leeds Teaching Hospitals....Pages 177-195 Supply Chain Management on Clinical Units....Pages 197-217 Business Analysis....Pages 219-244 Logistics Services and Beyond....Pages 245-257 The Expert’s Opinion: Part I – The Healthcare Providers....Pages 259-278 The Expert’s Opinion: Part II – The Suppliers....Pages 279-295 Front Matter....Pages 297-297 The Supply Chain Model of eBusiness in Healthcare....Pages 299-318 Back Matter....Pages 319-324 Here is a book that aggregates five years of experience of three successive R and D projects (ELCH, GetTogether, GROPIS) covering technical and organizational issues of eProcurement. The projects, which were funded partly by the government and partly by industry and hospitals, looked at the characteristics of procurement processes and at standard technologies. Two of the projects included case studies (ELCH, GROPIS), the third project focused on the development of standard business objects for eProcurement in healthcare (GetTogether). Together they form a rich source of information worth communicating to a large audience of experts and newcomers alike.