Rethinking rehabilitation resources: an amuse-bouche to supply chain management.

Supply chain disruptions can compromise rehabilitation service delivery, yet this intersection remains largely unexplored in rehabilitation medicine literature. Despite growing recognition that supply chain resilience is a determinant of healthcare quality, no prior work has systematically applied supply chain frameworks to the rehabilitation context. This perspective addresses that gap by introducing supply chain management principles to rehabilitation practitioners. Drawing on the Purchasing Portfolio Model, we classify rehabilitation supplies into four categories based on cost and complexity: strategic items (customized prosthetics and orthotics), leverage items (mobility aids), bottleneck items (medications), and non-critical items (disposables). Each category requires distinct procurement and risk mitigation strategies. We discuss fundamental supply management approaches including value analysis teams that combine clinical and administrative expertise, strategic supplier relationship management, and collaborative inventory models such as purchasing alliances and consolidated service centers. Using the COVID-19 pandemic as a case in point, we illustrate that disruptions across all supply categories, from high-cost equipment to inexpensive disposables, can compromise patient care regardless of item cost. We argue that rehabilitation medicine requires a tailored supply chain literacy that bridges clinical and operational expertise. Future research should empirically examine the relationships between supply chain resilience and patient outcomes in rehabilitation settings.