A changing supply chain for a changing health care system: Barriers and facilitators of implementing enterprise resource planning

BACKGROUND: No studies have examined how health care mergers and acquisitions affected the hospital supply chain and its employees since the passing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. OBJECTIVE: To describe the barriers and facilitators of digital transformation in a hospital supply chain from the employee perspective. METHODS: We conducted two rounds of interviews, one year apart, with supply chain employees at an urban academic health system preparing to adopt an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software (N = 11 in Round I and N = 8 in Round II). Two researchers coded transcripts for themes using NVivo 11. RESULTS: We identified the following barriers to technology integration: silos between supply chain groups (e.g. Purchasing, Information Management, Strategic Sourcing), between employees and management, and resulting from prior mergers; focus on short-term problems and fear of change; and lack of transparent communication about upcoming changes. Facilitators of technology integration included motivation to work in supply chain; long-term vision that allowed tolerance of change and positive outlook; and transparent communication. CONCLUSION: Desire for shared leadership among employees emerged as a major theme, indicating the need for active involvement of employees during transition to new integrative technology.