Hospital-Location Classification and Analysis in the Healthcare Cold Chain using K-means Algorithm

Abstract

Logistics and supply chain management for the healthcare sector is concerned with activities related to production, storage, and distribution. Relevant stakeholders are from various parties, which are inclusive of material supplier, manufacturer, distribution center, regional hospital, provincial hospital, as well as patients. In this research, we analyze the locational data of hospital using a case study of hospitals in Thailand to evaluate potential locational center acting as a central storage and distribution centers. Initially, we apply the K-means algorithm to classify hospital locational data into a specified number of classification groups. Then, the location model based on rectilinear distance is formulated and minimized to evaluate potential locations for the central storage and distribution centers. Our initial study provides promising result and is subject to the on-going development of the healthcare cold chain model in our research study.