Factors Affecting Supply Chain Agility at Hospitals in Iran

The agility of a hospital represents responsiveness of the hospital in the face of internal and external changes and agile hospitals are able to compete with other hospitals in providing services to patients. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the factors affecting agility supply chain in hospitals of Iran.
This applied research study was conducted in 2014- 2015. The population of this study included all managers, administrators, faculty members and experts of health care centers. A sample of 260 hospitals was selected based on cluster sampling from 5 regions of country. A 53 item researcher- developed questionnaire of agility was distributed among the sample. The construct validity and reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha (r=0.97). The collected data were entered in SPSS ¡lisrel software and were then analyzed with relevant tests.
The development of employee's skills (p =0.008), The use of information technology )p =0.008), The integration of processes )p =0.001), The sensitivity and responding to market )p =0.000), appropriate planning )p =0.004), the introduction of a new product )p =0.008), reduction in costs )p =0.000), customer satisfaction )p =0.005), and product quality )p =0.005) appeared to have a significant impact on agility of public hospitals in Iran. While the introduction of new products received the highest rating, developing the skills of employees received the lowest rating.
Rapid response to increasing and changing needs of customer is necessary to gaining a competitive advantage for hospitals that can increase their agility capabilities by creating the new strategies and improving their infrastructure.