Supply Chain Integration and Performance of Private Hospitals in Nairobi

Abstract

There has been a growing stress on SCM as a means through which firms can attain competitive gain in market over the past decade. A great number of organizations have made investments to make more efficient their supply chains with an aim of improving customer contentment and add to their interior output. The current study sought after determining how supply chain integration practices are utilized in private hospitals in Nairobi and to determine the relationship between the supply chain integration and performance of private hospitals in Nairobi. Three theories were used to give details on the concept of supply chain integration: Systems theory, the Resource Dependence Theory (RDT) and resource based view theory. The study used cross-sectional descriptive survey research design to assess the effects of supply chain integration practices on the performance of private hospitals in Nairobi. The target population of this study was the 65 inpatient private hospitals in Nairobi (appendix II). Since the population is not too large, the researcher proposed to do a census. The main instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire that allow for uniformity of responses to questions. Data on supply chain integration was ranked while data on effects of the dimensions on performance was analyzed by correlation. The researcher performed a regression analysis to establish the relationship between the independent variables with the dependent variable. Customer integration has highest impact on the performance of private hospitals in Nairobi, followed by the supplier integrations and finally followed by internal integration. The researcher believes that customer integration variable has the highest impact refers to the managers awareness about the importance of customer integration and its positive impact on the other two integration variables. There is a strong positive relationship between supply chain integration and performance dimensions of Private hospitals in Nairobi as shown on table 4.13(R= 0.777). In addition, independent variables are correlated among themselves, and there are correlations between them and the operational performance dimensions. Independent variables are positively related to each other, the dependent dimensions are also positively related among each other of them, and independent variables and dependent dimensions are also positively related together. It is recommended that organizations should work more closely with suppliers in order to increase the level of integration which in turn increases the Operational Performance through linking both suppliers and organizations with advanced information system to facilitate the flow of materials, information, and experiences, in addition to control the inventory. It is recommended to pay greater attention to the internal integration through the involvement of various departments in formulating their strategic plans