Green supply chain method in healthcare institutions

Abstract

Social and environmental problems arisen with economical and technological development sometimes lead a chaos especially in healthcare industry. The current complexity of healthcare services increased in parallel with the increase of environmental awareness and scarcity in healthcare resources. Green supply chain management is defined as a process consisted of green purchasing, green manufacturing/material management, green distribution/marketing and reverse logistic process. Green supply chain management practices are mostly common in the United States when we look around the world. When we consider Turkey, on the other hand, we can say that green management approach has recently started to be recognized and practiced. In Turkey, two hospitals has focused on this topic so far: “İstanbul Florence Nightingale Hospital” and “Medistate Kavacık Hospital”. In parallel with the proliferation of green hospital concept, there will be a possible increase in the practices related to green supply chain management in Turkey. With this study, it is aimed to draw attention to green supply chain, an environmentalist approach in the supply chain management of healthcare institutions and to raise awareness in managers of health institutions.