Date of Graduation

12-2013

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Industrial Engineering (MSIE)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Industrial Engineering

Advisor/Mentor

Buyurgan, Nebil

Committee Member

Rardin, Ronald L.

Second Committee Member

Rossetti, Manuel D.

Keywords

Health and environmental sciences; Healthcare; Patient risk; Supply

Abstract

Patient safety is one of the most important health care challenges. It is a big concern since 1 in every 10 patients around the world is affected by healthcare errors. The focus of this study is given to preventable adverse events that caused by the errors or system flaw that could have been avoided. In this study, simulation models are developed using Arena to evaluate the impact of GS1 data standards on patient risk in healthcare supply chain. The focus was given to the provider hospital supply chain operations where inventory discrepancy and performance deficiencies in recall, return, and outdate management can directly affect patient safety. Simulation models are developed for various systems and scenarios to compare different performance measures and analyze the impact of GS1. The results indicates that as the validation points are closer to the point of use, the number of recalled or outdated products administered to a patient are still reduced significantly so checking at the bedside or PAR is critical. But validation only at these points may cause some problems such as stock outs; therefore, validating in other locations is also needed.

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