Inventory Management and Public Drug Supply System
In any health facility, be it a small health center or a big teaching hospital, drugs form an essential and indispensable resource element. In order to ensure their prompt availability in adequate quantity, at the time of need, drugs must be kept ready in stock. This requires careful planning to decide which drug items may be needed during a given time frame and in what quantity. Since almost all finished pharmaceuticals have a defined shelf-life and many of them require compliance with precise storage conditions, the matter becomes a little more complex. Besides, a balance between the service level and the stock position must always be maintained. The total activity of such stock maintenance should be done keeping in view the essential drugs concept. Inventory management in health policy addresses all these issues.
The term ‘inventory’ means ‘a complete list of goods in stock’. In the context of health facility, ‘inventory’ refers to a comprehensive listing of all items in stock that are required for health-care delivery. Such items include drugs, chemicals, dressings, as well as instruments and equipment. Management of this inventory at a health facility involves the following steps.

• Selection of items to be procured and calculation of their quantity - Such selection and quantitation is done by considering the consumption of the items in the past and also by guarding against unpredictable changes in demand in the future. Simple mathematical formulas are often used for such calculation.
• Placing timely orders - Order placement must be done well ahead of actual demands at consumption level in order to accommodate the lag period between the placement of order and receipt of the supply, which may vary greatly in different situations.
• Receiving the supply - This should be pre-programmed and great care must be exercised to avoid disruption of the cold chain while handling vaccines and certain other items. Sometimes the need for repackaging and relabeling may compound the problem further with increased chance of error and negligence.
• Ensuring proper and safe storage - A ‘first in first out’ rule is followed while stocking the supply. Items should be placed in such a manner that the stock received earlier will be consumed prior to those received latter. The system must ensure that no unauthorized handling or pilferage of stocks occurs.
• Facilitating prompt supply - The use of medicines by the patient must not be held up due to supply delays. Supply must be in strict compliance with ward requisitions or physician’s orders.
• Maintaining up-to-date stock records - This is extremely important as it provides the primary source of information used in various recording formulas. This also provides a measure of the efficiency and the accountability of the inventory management system.
• Designing a reordering policy - The frequency of reordering and the reorder quantity must both be carefully considered.

Rational use of drugs demands an efficient inventory management system. Even in big hospitals, quality of patient care depends heavily on the efficiency of inventory management. Ironically, in most drug stores of public sector health facilities in this country, personnel in charge of inventory control never had any sort of training in this specialized job, and are entrusted to run the show somehow in arbitrary and ad hoc manner. The subject is technical but not too complex. With a little orientation and training, the health workers in medical stores can perform their job much more scientifically, to the ultimate benefit of patients and saving of money through less wastage of stock. It is high time that health administrators paid attention to this matter.
Santanu Kumar Tripathi

[top] [index]