Inventory Management Performance on Emergency Medicines in Federal Hospitals of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: A Mixed Method Approach
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Date
2025-06-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Introduction: Emergency Medicines are medicines that are used for handling time sensitive Emergency
care at facility and/or pre facility level for conditions until stabilization.The unavailability of emergency
medications in emergency situations could impact patient outcomes. The absence of essential emergency
drugs points to a weakness in emergency preparedness. Proper inventory management on emergency
medicines is crucial for insuring the availability of life saving medicines in the health care settings.
Objective: This study aims to assess inventory management performance on emergency medicines in
Federal Hospitals in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Methods: An explanatory mixed study was conducted in six Federal Hospitals in Addis Ababa from
January 2024 up to March 2024. The quantitative data was collected using interviewer administered semi
structured and structured questionnaire and observational checklists. The qualitative data were collected
through in depth interview to explain the challenges and way forward .the quantitative data was analyzed
using SPSS version24 and Excel spreadsheet. chi-square test was used to determine the association between
variables and spearman`s rho analysis was used to test correlation, the critical value (p<0.05) and (p<0.01)
was considered significant respectively.
Result: The mean availability of emergency medicines was 63.5%, the mean day‟s duration of stock out
was 51.07 days and the mean stock out rate was 55.61%. mean percentage of updated bin card was 79.85%.
the inventory accuracy rate for emergency medicines was 78.24%.While all facilities surveyed used report
and requisition form for program medicine and bin cards, there were no report and requisition form for
budget drugs, revealing inconsistent application of stock management tools across drug groups .Among
submitted report 100% was timely reported 77.7% was complete and 72.2 % accurate. The total cost of
expired medicines is 1,326,035.31 ETB birr. The mean Wastage rate was found to be 2.53%.
Key challenges include poor manual process, discrepancies in stock records and unreliable suppliers.
Conclusion: The findings show there were significant emergency medicines stock out across hospitals with
some facility facing critical stock outs. Stock-outs of vital medicines highlight weakness in emergency
preparedness. Despite the complete utilization rate of bin card there is a gap in inventory accuracy and bin
card updating. Inventory accuracy and bin card updating and prioritization of vital drugs shows to be
associated with emergency medicines availability. Inconsistent application of stock management tools and
high wastage need attention. These financial losses from expired medication along with shortages indicate a
series gap in inventory control, the overall adherence to storage standards is generally high. However, there
are some areas where improvement is needed
Recommendations: Federal hospitals in Addis Ababa should Identify best practice and share through
benchmarking, standardize inventory management tools across all federal hospital and across all Items
category, conduct regular stock reviews and improve quality of data from logistic management information
tools
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Keywords
Emergency medicine, Inventory management performance, Availability, inventory accuracy, stock out rate, wastage.