# Optimization of Inventory Management to Prevent Drug Shortages in the Hospital Supply Chain
## 2 Related Work
### Defining Inventory Management and the Hospital Supply Chain  
In line with [13; 14], inventory management is connected with the procedure of requesting, storing, and utilizing an institution's inventory. This involves the management of primary products, components, as well as end products. It also consists of warehousing and processing such items. However, Reference [15] depicted it as a systematic approach to sourcing, storing, and selling inventory, that is both finished goods (products) and raw materials (components). A supply chain, on the other hand, is composed of stages that are either indirectly or directly involved in accomplishing a customer's request [16]. According to [17], it basically involves the producer, supplier, transport operators, warehousing, retailers, third party logistics providers, and lastly, the customer. [PERSON] et al. noted that the supply chain is responsible for ascertaining that there is an adequate connection of hospitals, operations, and the revenue cycle.  
The Importance of Optimizing the Inventory Management to Prevent Drug Shortages of the Hospital Supply Chain  
Health care institutions across the globe are in search of methods that will prove effective in improving the efficiency of operations, that is inventory management, while reducing expenditures that will in no way affect medical care and services [18]. Reference [19] illustrated that the material requirements for the provision of health care delivery are multifarious, generating a complex distribution network of relationships from the distributor to the customer. Furthermore, health care budgets are very stringent, and thus, health care providers are attempting to optimize their inventory management, which will eventually lead to a reduction of the costs incurred whilst providing health care [13].  
Additionally, [PERSON] et al. in [20] noted that an effective supply chain management is one that intends to optimize the full value created as opposed to the profit produced in a specific supply chain. The hospital supply chain, sometimes referred to as the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain (PSC), is intricate and comprised of numerous organizations that perform various but sometimes superimposed roles in the contraction and distribution of drugs [21]. In line with [22], price variation among the various types of users is considered to be a regular phenomenon owing to its degree of complexity. Thus, it becomes significantly more complicated for policy makers to evaluate and comprehend the supply chain [23]. According to [16], increased discernment of said issuesassociated with policymakers is considered to play a role in making logical policy decisions for Medicare programs.  
An ineffective hospital supply chain is associated with product shortages, product discontinuity, decreased patient safety, poor performance, distribution flaws, and technological mistakes that result in stock shortages in hospitals [24]. Reference [25] stated that increasing the productivity of supply chain management is key to obtaining more robust, safer, and lower cost hospital operations in public hospital medicine management units. This is achieved by optimizing the supply processes, enhancing satisfaction and patient safety, as well as reducing errors. However, Michigan State University [26] observed that an extensive distribution arrangement to transfer pharmaceutical commodities and other medical equipment from the medical stores to the service points is still lacking in most hospital systems. This lack of appropriate distribution systems creates a considerable bottleneck, often making it very difficult to access said products and supplies [21].