Implementing and Using New Information Technology in Hospital Logistics

Both public and private hospitals in Tailand seek to improve and increase service sufficiency as well as opportunities in an increasingly competitive healthcare services market in Thailand. One of these strategies is to adopt new technology into various functions in the hospital. This research aims to study IT implementation in the hospital supply chain. A qualitative survey of 20 community hospitals in Thailand is conducted providing information on IT –enabled development in Information Management, Data Standardization, Inventory Management, Purchasing Process and Transportation Management. The results show that most of the hospitals with poor performance tend to lack of functions responsible for new information technology implementation. When IT is applied effectively, results show that it brings about performance gains in inventory, purchasing and transportation functions of the studied hospitals.