The supply center of the Atsumi Hospital handles medicines, medical supplies, slips, stationery, daily necessities, resterilized things, laundries, linen and washing beds among many others. The center is striving to raise the efficiency of the flow of materials within the hospital and undertakes logistics management single-handed. In January 2003, one copier and one lithographic unit out of the total four duplicating and printing machines in the hospital were removed to the suppy center. Since then, the center has been responsible for handling these machines for individual users. How effective this office meanagement system was in saving time, cutting down on costs and increasing the degree of satisfaction felt by employees was examined as part of TQM activities.Between June 2003, when the advance booking system was adopted for the use of the two machines, and January 2004, it was found that the monthly reservation ratio averaged out 38.3%. A questionnaire survey also found that many menbers of the staff were satisfied as they could make good use of time. As regards cost reduction, the monthly rental for the copying machine was curtailed to ¥57,000. This was made possible as members of the supply center made proper use of the copier and lithography.
Copying Processes ; Economic supply ; Agent ; Central ; Hospitals

Today, the circumstances surrounding the medical economy are severer than ever. Therefore, it is vitally important for a hospital to rationalize management and implement a labor-saving system drastically.In October 2000, Atsumi Hospital moved to a newly built complex. At that time, those sections and departments which do not have any direct relation to medical treatment and care were restructured and established a supply center in order to use human resources effectivily.Before the establishment of the supply center, we had reviewd simple, routine tasks such as ward nursing assistant services, office work and management itself. While introducing our hospital supply center in this paper, we compare efficiencies before and after the move to the new building and dwell on advantages of centralization of ward nursing services.The rearrangement of the personnel, materials and information has made it possible to increase the efficiency of simple work and reduce the number of nursing assistants by 20%. Henceforth, it would be necessary to educate the staff, work on proper personnel changes, carefully make a plan for outsourcing, and choose trustworthy dealers.
Human Resources ; Work ; Economic supply ; Effective ; Central

Distribution channel of Chinese herbal medicines has been changing. From Han to Ming Dynasty, Chinese herbal medicine were mainly trafficked to urban by dealers or farmers; From the Ming Dynasty to the foundation of new China, distribution channels are primarily intermediated with township "bazaar" and national distribution center with fixed place and regularly trading hours. In the planned economy period, the state-owned herbal medicine company was the sole medium with monopoly nature. From the mid1980s to the end of last century, planned economy and market economy have been co-existing. Stepping into 21st century, producing area highlighted in the distribution channels. Presence or absence and rise or fall of different types of distribution market went throughout the changing process of distribution channels, which became an important clue. Changes were motivated by economical consideration of channel subject, which originated from commodity characteristic and social environment changes.
Cities ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; economics ; supply & distribution ; Economic Development ; Marketing