Sustainable Healthcare Supply Chain Management
A special issue of Healthcare (ISSN 2227-9032). This special issue belongs to the section "Healthcare and Sustainability".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2026 | Viewed by 246
Special Issue Editor
Interests: healthcare; Industry 4.0; Industry 5.0; operations management; service management; supply chain management; sustainability
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Healthcare systems worldwide are facing unprecedented challenges driven by rising costs, increasing demand for services, demographic transitions, global health emergencies, and growing environmental and social pressures. In this complex and highly regulated context, healthcare supply chains play a critical role in ensuring the availability, safety, quality, and sustainability of care delivery. At the same time, hospitals and healthcare organizations are under mounting pressure to reduce environmental impacts, enhance social responsibility, and improve operational efficiency without compromising patient outcomes.
Sustainable healthcare supply chain management (SHSCM) has emerged as a strategic approach to address these challenges by integrating environmental, social, and economic dimensions into healthcare logistics and operations, including the adoption of green and circular practices, responsible procurement, waste and resource management, digital transformation, and resilience strategies capable of responding to disruptions such as pandemics, geopolitical instability, and climate-related events.
This Special Issue aims to publish high-quality research that advances theoretical and practical understanding of sustainability-driven strategies, models, and technologies applied to healthcare supply chains. We invite contributions that explore how healthcare organizations can design, manage, and optimize supply chains that are efficient, resilient, patient-centered, and aligned with global sustainability goals.
Areas of interest include, but are not limited to, the following topics:
- Sustainable, green, and circular healthcare supply chains;
- Environmental and social sustainability in hospital logistics and procurement;
- Waste management, reverse logistics, and circular economy in healthcare systems;
- Digital transformation and Industry 5.0 applications in healthcare supply chains;
- Healthcare supply chain resilience, risk management, and crisis response;
- Human-centric, ethical, and socially responsible supply chain practices in healthcare;
- Data analytics, artificial intelligence, and decision-support systems for sustainable healthcare operations;
- Sustainable sourcing, supplier management, and value-based procurement in healthcare;
- Integration of sustainability metrics and ESG frameworks in healthcare logistics;
- Case studies and best practices in sustainable healthcare supply chain management.
This Special Issue welcomes original research articles, systematic and integrative literature reviews, and empirical case studies that contribute to advancing both academic knowledge and managerial practice in sustainable healthcare supply chain management.
Prof. Dr. Annibal Scavarda
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- healthcare supply chain
- healthcare logistics
- healthcare economy
- Industry 5.0 in healthcare
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