Medical Equipment Supply Chain Management System at PFSA: Warehouse Layout Design and System Software Development
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Date
2018-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Improving the performance of medical equipment supply chain management system is crucial in the healthcare service delivery. The Pharmaceuticals Fund and Supply Agency (PFSA), the responsible body, has strived to systematize the medical equipment supply chain management system (MESCMS) since its establishment despite the fact it needs more improvement. The objective of this study is to investigate, analyze, design and develop an efficient MESCMS that can ensure the quality, safety, reliability of medical equipment through proper delivery, effective distribution, functional supervision and technical support for concerned health facilities (federal and regional hospitals, health center and health post).
Qualitative and quantitative methods were used for this case study of MESCMS. Data gathering techniques such as questionnaire, interview, and direct observation were applied for targeted personnel. The participants were selected by purposive sampling technique. In doing so, a total of 54 questionnaires were distributed in PFSA and facilities. From these, 43 questionnaires were filled out and returned back.
The survey data analysis result revealed that 88% and 78% of respondents agreed that the storage and distribution practices of medical equipment are not in line with the standard Good Storage Practices (GSP) and Good Distribution Practices (GDP) respectively. Moreover, the data also shows that 83% and 72% of the participants agreed that there is no proper delivery and inspection service of medical equipment at PFSA, respectively. Furthermore, 77.8% and 75.7% of the respondents agreed that PFSA is providing insufficient medical equipment functionality supervision and technical support for facilities, respectively. Finally, 84% of respondents agreed that the PFSA does not have an effective warehouse management system (software) used to keep and make available the required information about medical equipment within the transaction.
The regression analysis shows that GDP is dependent variable on independent variables such as Proper delivery, Tracking method, Automation, Storing practices, and Equipment inspection. The model’s degree of explaining the variance in the dependent variable was ��2=0.794. Therefore, the coefficient value tells about 79.4% of the variation in the GDP is explained by all other dependent variables. According to the ANOVA statistics �� = 14.659,�� < 0.05, therefoere, the five independent variables in the standared model are significantly predicative of the dependent variable. PFSA need to have high attention to improve the GDP along with the other significant independent variables.
Currently, PFSA is working with computerized management system in order to conduit interaction between facilities and other stakeholders though it is not effective as required. In general, PFSA needs to apply best practices on inspection, storage, distribution, proper delivery, technical support and functionality supervision activities in the management of medical equipment in order to increase customer satisfaction.
The lack of proper management of medical equipment has affected the facilities not to deliver adequate healthcare services. Thus, in order to support PFSA to solve the identified problems, the research proposed a novel warehouse layout design and web-based management system. The management system can record and easily retrieve all the relevant information regarding the status of medical equipment both at FSA warehouse and at the facilities after delivery. Such computerized management system not only prevents mix-up in the warehouse and avoids order exchanges while distributing, but also helps trace the status of medical equipment after it leaves the warehouse. It can tell us the facility and the date where and when equipment is installed and commissioned.
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Keywords
Medical equipment, Supply Chain System, warehouse layout design, Warehouse Management System