Optimization model for designing disruption-oriented network of laboratory services and managing procurement of health items under uncertainty: A real-world case study

In today’s turbulent world, unpredictable events with various effects on human health have highlighted the importance of an agile and integrated network to provide health services. Providing health services to applicants is realized when procurement of the required health items is effectively and efficiently managed. In the present research, a practical approach is taken to design an integrated network to provide laboratory services and manage the procurement of related items under uncertainty. For this purpose, a multi-product and multi-period optimization model is presented to minimize the expected costs. Also, a scenario-based robust optimization approach is adopted for uncertainty programming. Moreover, a real-world case study in Iran is employed to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of the presented model. Integrating the network of providing laboratory services and managing the procurement of related consumable items, employing geological software such as Arc GIS to locate potential facilities in laboratory service network, and simultaneously dealing with disruptions and operational risks in healthcare networks are the distinctive research contributions. The obtained results indicate the advantages of designing an integrated network to provide laboratory services and manage the procurement of relevant items to save costs and improve the quality of providing service to applicants. In general, it could be observed that a lack of planning to deal with disruptive incidents could cause severe damage to the performance of the studied integrated network.