Healthcare Supply Chain Strategies Report

Exclusive Insight into Healthcare Supply
Chain Operations in the Middle East
7 Senior Healthcare SCM and Operation experts share their insight
into building integrated supply chain functions in healthcare facilities
across the Middle East
enterpriseriskmanagement.iirme.com

What’s in this report?
to Enterprise Risk Management in
the Middle East
As the demand for healthcare services increasingly grows and new developments are launched in the
region, supply chain capabilities are being pushed to the limit and SCM practitioners are expected
to be cost-efficient while ensuring highest quality of care. Supply chain functions must be resilient
and flexible to accommodate the growing market, government regulations and demands from
internal and external stakeholders.
We asked 7 senior healthcare SCM professionals about their experiences in leading and developing
supply chain functions in their healthcare organisations. In this report you’ll get to learn what their
pressing challenges are, how they view the growth in the sector, what strategies they use to achieve
supply chain efficiencies whilst ensuring quality care, and also hear about the successful tools they
use to develop a lean SCM model. It’s full of insightful tips and strategies on how to enhance and
develop your healthcare supply chain function.
I hope you find their opinions both insightful and valuable to you. You can also meet them personally
at the Healthcare Supply Chain Strategies, taking place on 6 – 9 April at the Address Hotel Dubai Mall.
You can find more information about the event here on the website.
Hoda Abdelhay
Summit Director
Healthcare Supply Chain Strategies
+971 (0)4 407 2668
hoda.abdelhay@iirme.com
…….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
healthcaresupplychain.iirme.com

Meet the experts we asked….
the Middle East
Dr. Reem Osman, CEO, Saudi German Hospital Dubai, UAE Dr. Reem Osman has over 16 years' experience in the healthcare
industry, and she is renowned for her innovative ideas and approaches for the integrated health care delivery and development
of Dubai's Healthcare sector by supporting Community based doctors and creating a conducive environment for healthcare
practice.
Jimmy Johnson, Director of Materials Management, Johns Hopkins Medicine Bayview Medical Center, USA Jimmy's
responsibilities includes directing SCM operations including Materials, Distribution, Vendor & Inventory Management, SAP IT, and
Purchasing, towards supporting the mission and values of the organization. He is teaching a SCM Program at King Faisal Specialist
Hospital, Dhahran Medical Center, Al Hasa Hospital, Corniche Hospital, Tawam Hospital, and Al Rahba Hospital.
Zayed Al Dahema, Director of Supply Chain Management, Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, UAE Zayed is the Director of a strong
Supply Chain Management team of 83 members including two departments and 8 Senior assigned for different teams. He
graduated in Business Administration from the Higher Colleges of Technology – Abu Dhabi.
Nipit Piravej, CEO, Bangkok Healthcare, Thailand Dr. Piravej was the Chief Corporate Officer (CCO) at Bangkok Chain Hospital in-
charge of corporate duties and development of the company's new premium care hospital project, the World Medical Center
(WMC), where he became CEO. His experience includes initiating strategic partnership models between insurers and key
healthcare value creators, championed the application of medical management to improve patient outcome, expanded the use
of information and communication technology to enhance services and patient safety.
Clendon P. Raines, Senior Director of Supply Chain, International Medical Center, Jeddah, KSA Clendon received his MS in
Logistics Management from Florida Institute of Technology. In his present role, he is responsible for the hospital’s supply chain
operations including Purchasing, Logistics/Warehouse, Distribution, and healthcare processes that involve planning, forecasting
and value analysis. He has over 30 years of materials, operations and supervisory experience in national and global positions.
Karima Ajhar Hakim, Procurement and Materials Director, Bellevue Medical Center, Lebanon In her current role, Karima
provides key input into identifying and tracking measurable criteria to support the hospital’s business plan, goals in development
and execution of a comprehensive global SCM logistics network. She’s responsible for system integration, purchase optimization,
inventory control, & demand planning to achieve optimal profitability while meeting the hospital’s standards of care and needs.
Ahsan S. Razzaq, General Manager – Corporate Supply Chain & QHSE, Olayan Financing Company, Healthcare Distributors:
ENAYAH, Arabian Health Care Supply Company (AHCSC), Baxter, KSA Ahsan’s current responsibilities include providing supply
chain operational excellence support, supporting implementation of Quality, Health & Safety and Environment (QHSE)
management systems for all Olayan group operating companies.
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Dr. Reem Osman, CEO, Saudi German Hospital Dubai, UAE to Enterprise
Risk Management in the Middle East
Looking ahead, what do you see as being the three main
challenges facing the healthcare supply chain in the region
over the next few years and why?
1) Increasing Regulations, Reforms and legislation in
healthcare Sector
2) Product Security and Product spoilage
3) Cost Management
How do you think the increasing growth in the healthcare
sector will affect strategic supply chain management in the
region?
Emphasis on Global Market / Investment in New technology
/ New ways of doing business call for new supply chain
models / More emphasis on cost management / More
Importance for the Healthcare Logistic enabling a high
degree of efficiency / Increased use of new distribution
channels / Alignment between Regulatory compliance and
Company Goals / Improving lead time (product delivery) /
Deliver premium high quality patient service on time /
Improving Safety (choosing better quality with better price)
How does your organization work with other key
stakeholders (regulatory bodies, hospitals, local
distributors, suppliers and manufacturers) to drive supply
chain efficiencies and save costs?
Compliance of new regulation reforms like DHA and MOH
and seeking solutions from third party providers / Improving
organizational design by relying on relational contracting /
Design Award systems to reward what you want done /
Move toward a best value approach (toward a focus on total
value added for customers) / Invest strategically in the
workforce
…….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
What are your top three tips for improving efficiencies in healthcare
supply chain operations?
1) Global Expansion
2) Increased focus on operational flexibility
3) Planned investment in new technology
4) Supply chains are equipped to handle the biologic influx
Why are you speaking at the Healthcare Supply Chain Strategies
Summit and why would you recommend that your peers attend?
It’s an opportunity to interact with multiple stakeholders in one place
to create strategic partnerships for a better collaborative supply
chain…and to learn best practice to build a lean material
management model, integrate SCM processes and achieve
efficiencies throughout the chain.
The event will also allow you to meet with senior experts in
healthcare supply chain and operations to discuss the industry's
challenges and brain storm solutions

Jimmy Johnson, Director of Materials Management, Johns Hopkins
Medicine Bayview Medical Center, USA to Enterprise Risk Management
in the Middle EastLooking ahead, what do you see as being the three main
1) Technology Cost – As technologies (Robots, RFID, ERP
system), how can hospitals maintain a minimal cost
structure that will not erode their efforts for research,
patient care, and infrastructure investments
2) Agile / Flexible Supply Chains – With the varying
degrees of demand (Patient volume, products, and
regulations) can our supply chains respond to the
challenges, as a seamless operation, without causing
major disruptions.
3) Talent – Having qualified, educated, and talented leaders
in the pipeline to help move / push the supply chain
towards excellence in service, products, patient care.
region?
This depends on how flexible the supply chain can respond
to the market. If the supply chain is agile, it will not have any
challenges with supporting the growth. However, if the
supply chain is not flexible / agile, the supply chain will not
be able to support it’s customers due to bottle necks, inferior
products, and inconsistent deliveries.
…….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
How does your organization work with other key stakeholders
(regulatory bodies, hospitals, local distributors, suppliers and
manufacturers) to drive supply chain efficiencies and save costs?
Within the US market, healthcare is a two prong approach, at the
regulatory level, healthcare is regulated on how much hospital will
receive from our state & local governments to provide patient care,
in other words, how much reimbursement the hospital will receive.
The second approach includes our free market; This is where
hospitals are free to work with any supplier, distributor, or GPO to
save cost. In our market, there are no exclusive agents that we have
to go through for products, thus making our prices competitive
among the various distributors, suppliers, and manufactures.
1) Supply Chain Education
2) Collaboration among hospitals, vendors, and manufacturers
3) Investment in “Smart” Technology
It’s important for supply chain professionals to attend seminars like
this because it gives them the opportunity to collaborate with their
peers, understand new developments related to (regulatory,
technology, and products), and to hear great speakers that have the
experience, education, and the skills to assist an organization supply
chain to be effective.

Zayed Al Dahema, Director of Supply Chain Management, Sheikh Khalifa
Medical City, UAE to Enterprise Risk Management in the Middle East
1) Lead time
2) Stock availability
3) Demand planning & forecasting
region?
There are many challenges that face the health sector and
one of these challenges is supply chain & logistics. Planning &
forecasting should be more data driven and work as partners
with our suppliers &hospitals. There will be new sub
specialties and more demand for general products.
Therefore, we would like to see more international
pharmaceutical / consumables manufacturers open in the
UAE.
How does your organization work with other key
stakeholders (regulatory bodies, hospitals, local
distributors, suppliers and manufacturers) to drive supply
chain efficiencies and save costs?
Through focus on CRM (customer relationship management),
& SRM (Supplier Relationship Management ), we improve
our systems and implement new strategies to open
communication with distributors, agents, and Regulators, to
enhance our service to penitents.
…….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
1) Supply Chain Education
2) Collaboration among hospitals, vendors, and manufacturers
3) Investment in “Smart” Technology
For the past few years ago, we noted the significant growth and high
demand in the healthcare sector. Therefore, we need to implement
effective supply chain strategies to reach a higher level of quality in
service.

Nipit Piravej, CEO, Bangkok Healthcare, Thailand
Enterprise Risk Management in the Middle EastLooking ahead, what do you see as being the three main
1) Rising demand for healthcare services, increasing
expectation on quality, while resources remain finite and
grow at a much slower pace. This will put greater
pressure on the cost side of the equation, including the
health supply chain. Inappropriate control of the supply
side in attempt to control costs, can compromise service
availability, health outcome and patient satisfaction.
2) Healthcare will continue to be more complex, specialized
and above all fragmented with increasing players and
micro-segmentation, many of which may operate in
isolation. This will create potential negative impacts
including poor information flow across the system,
difficulty in partnership across the value chain as well as
inefficient and ineffective care systems.
3) The rise of life style related health risks and chronic
medical conditions will make the existing acute care
based health delivery system ineffective and even
obsolete for managing significant number of medical
conditions. Healthcare supply chain must be given a seat
at the table for long term national healthcare planning.
region?
All GCC countries are moving toward universal health
insurance model to expand access to care. This can result in a
system where providers, suppliers and payers are split with
consumers trapped in the middle. Zero sum game type of
encounter among stakeholders to maximize their own
financial incentives will most likely cause unsatisfactory
performance of the whole system.
…….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
As a private healthcare player, we have tried several initiatives in
collaboration with a number of strategic partners in healthcare
supply chain including bulge purchasing, inventory management
outsourcing and strategic medical supply planning and
management. There are opportunities to apply more innovative
partnership models but building up mutual trust and positive-sum
engagement attitude are important pre-requisites.
What are your top three tips for improving efficiencies in
healthcare supply chain operations?
1) Treat health supply chain players as strategic partners, give
them seats at the table for strategic dialogue and planning,
provide win-win incentives to improve availability, quality and
efficiency, not just offering lowest price
2) Standardize information and ensure good information flow
across the value chain to enable seamless integration and
coordination
3) Adopt information and communication as well as automation
technologies to streamline the whole supply chain
With relatively young healthcare systems and favorable
geographic and socioeconomic factors, GCC countries have a good
opportunity to leapfrog in their healthcare supply chain
development to create a patient centric value-based integrated
health supply chain that will deliver long term efficiency for
achieving sustainable healthcare and a win-win play field for all
value creators

Clendon P. Raines, Senior Director of Supply Chain, International Medical
Center, Jeddah, KSA Enterprise Risk Management in the Middle East
1) Increased regulatory oversight – efforts to mitigate or
minimize the insurgency of counterfeit/contaminated
pharmaceuticals that have found their way into the
healthcare SC.
2) Increasing cost/price of all healthcare related goods and
services – driven by competition – outsourcing and rise
in research and development costs
3) Information Integrity – more hospitals are seeking
transparency and sharing of pricing agreements between
manufacturers and distributors
region?
I think we will see decrease in availability of like products
due to high demand created by addition of new hospitals or
additions to existing ones. Prices/cost of goods and services
will go continue to rise as the ratio of supply and demand
move in conversely with this trend – we could see longer
lead times tacked on to our expected delivery times – longer
periods of stock out situations.
…….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Members of the SC team work with our suppliers on a regular basis
to address service-related issues – working toward transparency on
what our true cost should be – who shoulders the cost for inventory?
Can we work toward vendor-managed inventory to minimize our
logistical footprint in the hospital? How can we improve delivery
schedules to minimize bulk receipt of majority of fast-moving supplies
We are working with our major suppliers on accessing shared
networks to view inventory and move toward electronic ordering as
opposed to manual process of paper POs, faxing and telephone
orders.
1) Constantly analyse inventory trends and adjust accordingly
2) Reduce redundancies in the supply chain – remove unnecessary
steps in procuring, receiving, and delivering products
3) Seek strategic partnerships with your suppliers – show
commitment – expect great results
I am speaking at this conference in hopes of sharing my knowledge
and experiences in running a viable supply chain operation.
I recommend other SC professionals to attend in efforts to network
and perhaps learn best practices – share practical success stories and
determine alternative solutions to similar problems and issues.

Karima Ajhar Hakim, Procurement and Materials Director, Bellevue
Medical Center, Lebanon Enterprise Risk Management in the Middle East
1) Escalating supply chain costs
2) Increase in the demand for Physician Preference Items
PPI
3) Role conversion of the supply chain department in a
hospital from a transactional to a strategic function
region?
The supply chain is positioned to play a critical role in the
transformation that health care needs to make, in order to
provide quality care in a sustainable and affordable manner.
This is done with better visibility to data; greater integration
with clinical and financial operations, improved business
processes amongst partners thus allowing the supply chain
to address the challenges facing the health care industry.
Cloud based technologies that foster collaboration are being
deployed in health care relationships and as much as more
supply chain practitioners recognize the interdependent
nature of the supply chain, suppliers are to be seen as
partners and not adversaries thus allowing manufacturers to
assist their customers to lower the costs of the commodities.
…….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Reliance on third party payers logistics for reimbursement, regulatory
compliance, new customer demand, increase the standard of health
care provision; all of which are reasons to allow the health care
supply chain to balance a number of priorities related to capture the
business growth opportunities in the market. Supply chain
management involves managing a connected series of activities
involved in the planning, coordinating, and auditing the movement of
materials and data. For this to occur, material, financial and
information flows are managed as decisions are made at the
strategic, tactical and operational levels of the supply chain.
1) Efficient supply chain is to be driven by value and powered by
information.
2) Role conversion of the supply chain department in a hospital
from a transactional to a strategic function
3) Align procurement strategy with reimbursement realities and
recognize that the actions of payers have a direct impact on the
supply chain
It is evident that health care supply chain is a highly evolving sector
and the summit will be an ideal platform to have practitioners within
this field come together, share successes and concerns. The summit
can also provide opportunities to discuss challenges and discuss best
practices. We would be able to identify various programs and
initiatives that can be implemented but moreover what restructuring
is needed to sustain supply chain efficiency based on tangible
experiences within the MENA countries.

Ahsan S. Razzaq, General Manager – Corporate Supply Chain & QHSE,
Olayan Financing Company, Healthcare Distributors: ENAYAH, Arabian
Health Care Supply Company (AHCSC), Baxter, KSAEnterprise Risk
Management in the Middle EastLooking ahead, what do you see as being the three main
1) Infrastructure – cold chain management remains a
challenge. Lack of control over the supply chain
elements coupled with lack of infrastructure such as
temperature control warehouses, boxes, fleet at the
critical parts of the supply chain are the major concerns
2) People – culture needs to be developed. Training and
rewards and recognition needs to be linked to health
care supply chain
3) Processes need to be changed to cater for cold chain
requirements as a first priority
region?
It will help supply chain to get more effective and efficient.
Relevant companies will need to become more competitive
to gain the market share by reducing supply chain costs such
as expiries and damages to be able to succeed
…….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Having joint teams that focus on seamless management of healthcare
supply chain. We keep in focus the end user and adopt what is the
most effective and efficient way to deliver to the end user. We then
assign responsibilities to each stakeholder within that process.
1) Have written supply chain policies and procedures managed
through Quality Management System
2) Train people down to the lowest level in the organization on
these procedures
3) Link the rewards of individuals to adherence to these procedures
and to continual improvement
It is our duty to ensure all patients get what they need to save their
lives in the right way and at the right time. There is no competition in
this. Hence, I am attending to share what we do at Olayan towards
this goal and to learn from others what they do and improve.
Furthermore, this even is an excellent opportunity to network and
get acquainted to with people in our field.

How would you respond?
the Middle East
Join the conversation at the premier Healthcare SCM event in the Middle East. Attend the Healthcare
Supply Chain Strategies Summit taking place on 6 – 9 April at the Address Hotel Dubai Mall and
benefit from the collective experience of 20+ regional and international healthcare supply chain and
operation experts.
See the full agenda today, call Pradeep on +971 4 407 2790, or email pradeep.fernandes@iirme.com
…….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
If your solutions and advice can help address the challenges faced by
regional hospitals and healthcare facilities, we’d like to hear from you. We
offer tailored packages to promote your brand and position your company as
the service provider of choice.
For more information contact Georgina Hill on +971 (0)4 407 2754 or
sponsorship@iirme.com

Healthcare Supply Chain Strategies Report

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