Maramba, GeorgeSmuts, HanlieHattingh, Maria J. (Marie)Adebesin, FunmiMoongela, HarryMawela, TendaniEnakrire, Rexwhite2024-01-162024-01-162023-11Maramba, G., Smuts, H., Hattingh, M. et al. 2023, 'Healthcare supply chain efficacy as a mechanism to contain pandemic flare-ups: a South Africa case study', International Journal of Information Systems and Supply Chain Management, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 1–24. https://doi.org/10.4018/IJISSCM.333713.1935-5726 (print)1935-5734 (online)10.4018/IJISSCM.333713http://hdl.handle.net/2263/93985DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT : This study used three different data sets: population data, healthcare wholesalers, and COVID-19 statistical data. Population data were obtained from the official Statistics South Africa website: https:// www.statssa.gov.za/, accessed on July 12, 2023. Healthcare wholesalers’ data cannot be shared due to privacy and ethical restrictions. The COVID-19 statistical data were obtained from the National Institute of Communicable Diseases official site: https://www.nicd.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/, accessed May 20, 2023, and the Department of Health’s COVID_19 official site: https://sacoronavirus. co.za/covid-19-daily-cases/, accessed April 26, 2023.The resilience and reliability of healthcare supply chain models were put to the test by the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). This study investigated the application of supply chain systems in South African healthcare institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic. A systematic literature review (SLR) was employed to explore the performance of existing supply chain systems, followed by a case study that tested and compared the acquisition and distribution of COVID-19 resources. The SLR revealed that most of the flare-ups were exacerbated by the acquisition of insufficient resources and speculative shortages as the supply chain systems got overwhelmed by the unprecedented demand. The simulation of the real-world data of South Africa revealed gaps in the distribution of resources, allocation of medical staff to administer COVID-19 vaccines, and shortages of vaccines. The study recommends development of effective contextual (SA) healthcare supply chain systems to support the containment of pandemic flare-ups. The study was conducted in South Africa and only reported data was used.enThis article published as an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.Supply chain conceptsHealthcare supply chainSupply chain modelsSupply chain systemsSupply Chain in healthcare institutionsCOVID-19 pandemicCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)South Africa (SA)SDG-09: Industry, innovation and infrastructureArticle