Health Tourism Research Identifies Resilience Strategies That Could Increase Supply-Chain Profits by 40%

According to the Public Relations Department of the College of Engineering, the study, which is based on real-world data from Iran's health tourism sector, shows that implementing resilience strategies can increase supply-chain profits by approximately 40% while also improving service quality and patient satisfaction. The findings could help managers strengthen their service networks and prepare for the complex challenges facing the industry in the 21st century.

Dr. Zeinab Sazvar, a faculty member of the School of Industrial Engineering at the College of Engineering and supervisor of the research, which was conducted as part of a master's thesis, explained the significance of the study:

“The health tourism industry is an important economic sector that has faced unprecedented challenges in recent years, including the COVID-19 pandemic and global economic and market fluctuations. In response to these challenges, this research uses mathematical optimization models to design a resilient ecosystem for health tourism service supply chains. The proposed framework could provide a new operational model for managing the industry in the post-COVID-19 era. The research emphasizes the integration of resilience, social responsibility, and mathematical optimization, moving beyond traditional approaches to health tourism supply-chain management.”

Dr. Sazvar explained that the proposed framework consists of two stages. “In the first stage, a decision-support system based on fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making methods, including Fuzzy DEMATEL and Fuzzy ANP, was developed to help managers evaluate and select healthcare and welfare service providers based on 11 criteria. These include cost, service quality, employee expertise, compliance with health protocols, social responsibility, and environmental performance.

“In the second stage, a mixed-integer nonlinear multi-objective programming (MINLP) model was developed to pursue three objectives simultaneously: maximizing total supply-chain profit, maximizing the scores of selected suppliers, and maximizing customer satisfaction.”

The multi-period, multi-service model covers a range of medical, therapeutic, and surgical services, as well as accommodation and visa-related services.

Dr. Sazvar identified the incorporation of resilience strategies to prevent interruptions in service provision during disruptions as one of the study's key innovations. “These strategies help ensure the continuity of services during disruptions. In addition, given the limited capacity for visa processing in Iran, the study proposes outsourcing visa-related services to other health tourism centers, thereby increasing the flexibility of the network.”

She added: “Given the uncertainty surrounding parameters such as demand, costs, and the severity of disruptions, the researchers used a hybrid Fuzzy Robust Stochastic Programming (FRSP) approach, which combines the advantages of stochastic programming, fuzzy logic, and robust optimization.”

The results show that implementing resilience strategies can increase supply-chain profits by approximately 40% while also improving service quality and patient satisfaction.

According to the researchers, the study is among the comprehensive studies addressing health tourism supply-chain design, integrating supplier assessment, resilience, marketing strategies, outsourcing, and uncertainty modeling within a two-stage mathematical framework.

The proposed framework could serve as a strategic tool for health tourism policymakers and senior managers, helping them strengthen the resilience of their service networks in the face of complex challenges and move the health tourism industry from a fragmented system toward a more resilient and integrated ecosystem.

Access the full article via the following link:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10479-024-06128-9