HEALTHCARE AS A SERVICE SUPPLY CHAIN: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF OPERATIONAL FLEXIBILITY ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN QUALITY OF HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT CAPABILITY

Abstract

This research has been undertaken with an inclination to study the systematic interplay between operations, information technology and management capability, while keeping healthcare as a supply chain. The aim of this research is to examine how operational flexibility influences the relationship between managerial competency and the quality of health information technology. A representative sample of 365 medical staff members (physicians, nurses, and medical technologists) from public hospitals in Lahore served as the basis for the cross-sectional study. To validate the proposed relationships, structural equation modeling was applied. The findings reveal that management skills and operational flexibility are significantly impacted by the quality of health IT, and subsequently has an impact over the service delivery in the healthcare sector. Management competence was also significantly impacted by operational flexibility, a partly mediating variable. According to the results of the study, improving the quality of health IT will boost managerial capacity and operational adaptability in healthcare institutions and enhance employee loyalty as a means of prompting sentiments associated to the workplace. Therefore, this research addresses the gap in the Pakistani healthcare supply chain literature, as there are relatively few studies that have looked at how operational flexibility affects the quality of health IT and staff management skills. The findings emphasize over the need to enhance the technology driven flexibility in service supply chains such as the healthcare sector, as it has a potential to improve both, service delivery and resource management.