Abstract
South Africa’s public healthcare supply chains face persistent challenges, including inefficient inventory management, lack of real-time tracking, and supply disruptions that compromise service delivery. These inefficiencies often lead to medication shortages, increased operational costs, and delays in patient care. Adopting Internet of Things (IoT) technologies could necessitate a reorganisation of supply chains, thereby generating prospects for advancements in public healthcare systems that are more streamlined and capable of generating competitive benefits. The study aimed to achieve two main objectives: identifying the factors that affect IoT adoption in healthcare facilities and examining the impact of IoT adoption on the overall supply chain performance of public healthcare facilities in South Africa. This study investigated IoT adoption based on the technology-organisation-environment (TOE) framework.
This study leaned towards the positivist research paradigm, adopting an exploratory research design utilising a deductive approach. The study was conducted in Ekurhuleni Municipality in South Africa. Purposive sampling strategy was utilised, resulting in 102 respondents drawn from the 90 public healthcare facilities in Ekurhuleni in Gauteng, South Africa. The quantitative data collection involved an online survey distributed to key employees. The analysis was conducted using SPSS, to generate descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, as well as multiple regression analysis.
Technological factors have the most significant influence on the adoption of IoT in public healthcare supply chains based in Ekurhuleni municipality. The presence of an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure and the relative benefits offered by IoT were identified as the key technological factors influencing adoption. However, compatibility with existing systems and processes was not found to be a significant factor influencing adoption. On the other hand, the readiness of the public healthcare supply chain, training provided to employees, top management support, competitive pressure, and government assistance did not have a direct impact on IoT adoption. The lack of significance in organisational and environmental factors may be attributed to the early stage of IoT adoption in the public healthcare
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supply chain. This study contributes to the theoretical understanding of IoT adoption by highlighting the dominant role of technological factors over organisational and environmental considerations in resource-constrained public healthcare settings. From a practical perspective, the findings provide guidance for policymakers and healthcare managers to prioritise investments in ICT infrastructure to accelerate IoT adoption. Enhancing technological readiness can lead to more efficient supply chain operations, ultimately improving healthcare service delivery and patient care outcomes. The findings imply that technology factors related to IoT adoption in public healthcare supply chains are important in creating the required efficiencies and effectiveness to achieve high supply chain performance. This suggests a current focus on foundational setup rather than the strategic integration of information technologies