Jebena, Tariku (PhD)Worku, Mulugeta2020-12-152023-11-042020-12-152023-11-042020-06http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/24085In Ethiopia, majority of the common leading causes of morbidity and mortality can be substantially reduced if essential drugs (EDs) are made available and appropriately used, where functioning of the drug management cycle is necessary. Thus, tracking changes and improvements of the pharmaceutical logistics performance is important. The aim of this study was to Evaluate the level of availability of essential medicines of Health Centers in Ministry of defense giving emphasis to non-program drugs (NPDs). A facility based descriptive cross sectional survey of the pharmacy of HCs in Addis Ababa and HCs that where found within 150 km from Addis Ababa was conducted using both quantitative and qualitative methods. seventeen HCs were included in the study. Overall availability of non program essential tracer medicines at the day of visit across the 17 Health Centers was found to be 85.88 % .one year retrospective Bin card review showed tracer Essential medicines where available on average for 11 month(92%) in a year ,which corresponds with an average 31 days(8%) out of stock duration in year. In conclusion, overall availability of EM is encouraging but works are needed to achieve WHO target of 100%. major problem common to all HC’s regarding drug management cycle Where ,drugs for essential drug list where not being selected by DTC, majority of the Centers don’t use formula for quantification, procurement by brand names was common practice, non availability of computer system and software and prescribing of medicines which ware not listed on essential medicine list where found from the study.DTC in HCs should be strengthened by each pharmacy units of the HCs and other stakeholders who closely work with the HCs such as defense health directorate. Usage of statistical formula based on consumption pattern needs to be emphasized and training regarding different statistical quantification methods needs to be initiated by the main health directorate. Procurement by Brand names should be avoided by the individual Health Centers.en-USDrug management cyclenon-program drugsUsage of EMLlogistic management information systemThesis