Aspects of Health Commodities Management

By Mr. Timothy Nyamache, Pharmaceutical Technologist, Jumuia hospital Kaimosi, Kenya.

Purpose

This article reflects on various aspects of commodity management including major challenges experienced by health caregivers. The top management can also work on the issues to be highlighted in order to improve the quality of health services at the facility level. This is a personal finding from my previous and current work stations.

Introduction

Health commodity management is at the core of providing health care to the population and encompasses proper controlling of all health products including drugs, non-pharmaceuticals and all records involved in handling these products. Lack of proper commodity management may lead to improper commodity usage, wastage of resources, donor withdrawal and death. This article looks into health commodity management processes, successes, challenges and opportunities.

Commodity management cycle.

A working process flow on all the steps of commodity management has to be put in place starting from commodity selection to usage all backed up with the national policy and legal framework where all these are taking place. Expertise input should is required in each of the following steps in order to minimize wastage, avoid duplication, ensure good quality and most importantly satisfy clients’ needs.

Challenges:

1. Lack of policies to guide commodity selection and ordering at the facility level. This may lead to duplication (stocking same items), revenue wastage through expiries and mismanagement of clients services.
2. Lack of or insufficient management support especially in availing equipment which ensures good conditions of these products e.g. Air conditioners, thermometers, ladders and many more. This affects the quality of these commodities as their storage conditions are not met thus reducing their shelf life.
3. Lack of Standard operating procedures (SOPs) guiding each step of commodity management cycle and help new members cope with the system. Each step of commodity management should be guided with well-stipulated guidelines to avoid mistakes and deviations.
4. Lack of proper educations in providing reports and reporting tools to relevant institutions including donors e.g. on usage, poor quality, adverse reactions etc.
5. Untimely payment of suppliers thus interfering with continuous commodity availability at the facilities.
6. Uninformed decision making on health and health commodities by those with non-medical background especially at the management level. This in most cases leads to poor decision making especially in aspects which needs expertise inputs.
7. Biased interests in specific companies in distribution or supply of commodities. This puts a lot of pressure to those in selection and procurement, thus affecting their decision making.

Opportunities: A number of health service providers don’t appreciate the importance of proper commodity management processes due to ignorance and insufficient education. It will be of great benefit to such facilities if an institution specializes in providing detailed training to those in need.

Success: Proper commodity management has led to the following benefits.

1. Documentation of simplified processes and the standard operating procedure has ensured efficiency and trust to facility operations.
2. Improved accountability and transparency especially in the procurement of health commodity products.
3. Pre-qualifying suppliers based on capability, sustainability, quality and affordability has helped ensure steady supply of these commodities.
4. Computerized operations have ensured easy stock management, easy report retrieval and reduced the cost of working operations.
5. Well documented SOPs have reduced medication errors and other mistakes as the new staff cope easily to the institution’s daily operations.

Summary

What will ever go wrong in commodity management when we come together and do the right thing? The right thing in this case means understanding the commodity management cycle, empowering our staff especially those in selection and procurement.

To influence decision making, it is important to consider managerial positions for persons with medical background as they better understand the dynamics of the commodity management cycle and appreciate each one of the steps involved. It is also vital to provide occasional training to staff on different aspects commodity management so as to continuously build their capacity.