| Summary: | Abstract This study describes how value is created within a health care logistics setting, especially considering the context of sparsely populated areas where distances play a critical role in service management. Health services are changing rapidly due to cost pressures and increasing demand. Therefore health care organisations have a growing need to improve patient processes and supporting logistics services such as material supply, pharmacy, instrument maintenance, food supply, assistive device and laundry services. Health care logistics has been recognised in the academic literature since the 1990s. Most of the studies focus on patient flows and care processes, while research on material flows in health care have been quite limited. In this dissertation material logistics is studied together with the concepts of value co-creation, service modularity, resilience of work and accessibility. The dissertation includes four case studies that are conducted in a multidisciplinary manner. Qualitative methods are accompanied by GIS-analyses with quantitative measures. The research data was collected between the years 2012–2019 using interviews and focus group discussions with representatives from public health care organisations in Northern Finland together with comparative cases from Southern Finland and the private sector. The nursing staff play a key role in both perceiving and creating value of health care logistics services during the usage of the supplied items, whereas the logistics organisation facilitates the value process. Both actors benefit from clarifying the task allocation and increasing resilience by adjusting working practices at the interface between the logistics personnel and the nursing staff. The various processes, services and organisations can be managed by recognising modularity as a cognitive frame. This also helps with organising the services into larger geographical entities with sufficient accessibility. As the distance between logistics facilities and points of use gets longer the ...
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