Analyzing the key challenges for improving healthcare logistics performance in the Indian context

Purpose The article aims to determine and assess the inter-relationships among various challenges or barriers to healthcare logistics in the Indian context for improving its performance. Design/methodology/approach Barriers to healthcare logistics have been identified from the existing literature on healthcare and discussions with the healthcare service experts. An integrated ISM-DEMATEL method has been employed to examine the key barriers, their hierarchies and inter-relationships among them. Findings The results reveal that lack of investment in healthcare logistics, lack of healthcare management expertise, lack of skilled healthcare workforce, unfavorable geographical conditions and socio-economic factors are the most influential or driving challenges impacting the performance of healthcare logistics. Research limitations/implications The healthcare logistics infrastructure varies across countries, leading to different results. This study specifically concentrates on the barriers within the Indian context. Practical implications The findings can assist industry professionals in focusing on the key driving barriers for decision-making. It can also assist the policy makers to devise new strategies and practitioners to design an efficient and resilient healthcare logistics framework for improving performance. Originality/value Limited number of studies exist in the extant literature that identify the barriers specific to the healthcare logistics sector and analyze their inter-relationships. Further, managerial insights are provided to deal with such complexities.