Managing disrupted supply chains in Swedish hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic

Ritva Rosenbäck, Björn Lantz and Peter Rosén

Health Systems, 2025, vol. 14, issue 1, 58-68

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted global supply chains and caused widespread shortages of healthcare supplies. This mixed-methods study examined the management of supply shortages in Swedish hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. The key findings are that the shortage of supplies was initially severe owing to low regional and national contingency inventory levels, a lack of knowledge of supply chain management, and cost-saving measures. The perceived consequences of the shortage of personal protective equipment persisted in emergency and inpatient departments, in the later waves. Although pharmaceutical shortages later decreased, hospital managers were disappointed that they persisted. This study also highlights the effectiveness of consensus-based hourly supply agreements between service organisations and unit managers, which makes the prioritisation of the limited supply more dynamic. Despite these challenges, hospitals were able to adapt to the supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic; however, the results emphasise the importance of preparedness for future pandemics.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20476965.2024.2349816 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:thssxx:v:14:y:2025:i:1:p:58-68

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/thss20

DOI: 10.1080/20476965.2024.2349816

Access Statistics for this article

Health Systems is currently edited by Sally Brailsford

More articles in Health Systems from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().