Importance Of Effective Health Commodity Management

2.9 The importance of Effective Health Commodities Management

The proper management of health commodities ensures that they are available and accessible to all staff serving patients at health facilities. Thus all staff has an important role to play in ensuring good commodity management even if they do not directly handle the commodities. AMREF (2009) says Commodity management is important for the following reasons such as demand for health care services, quality of health services, cost, wastage, ensures continuous availability, ensures full supply and avoids irrational or incorrect use. These are explained in turn as follows:

2.9.1 Demand for Health Care Services The availability of

Adequate storage and inventory control is a challenge many drugs expire before they can be used, or they are used irrationally. Eventually, the products reach the service delivery point, which might be a health facility, laboratory, or community health worker. Finally, at the point of delivery to the customer, there is product use. Availability of health commodities alone does not ensure quality of care. Drugs must also be rationally prescribed and dispensed; and clients, especially providers, must be aware of the treatment guidelines for the products. Rational prescribing and use of drugs is a major challenge, even where STGs and EMLs exist. Physician training in rational prescribing is gaining ground but is still not widespread Deliver, (2003). In the past, essential drugs, vaccines, and contraceptives were for the most part distributed using separate logistics systems. For vaccines and contraceptives, such systems were organized vertically to some

In some cases, this reform has led to higher staff productivity, better performance, and more enforcement of payment policies. However, disruption in supply often occurs during Central Medical Store transition phases. Increased integration of commodities, including contraceptives and vaccines, has also been noted. In some cases, it has decreased the amount and reliability of data collected on logistics, creating problems for needs estimation and for tracking of consumption (Vian and Bates 2003). Another trend is the increasing use of private transporters and contracting out for transportation management. Contracting transport can generate cost savings and improve services. Finally, a trend toward computerized systems exists, particularly involving the use of donor-financed software for improved management of logistics as well as a number of comprehensive assessment tools and indicator sets for evaluating commodities supply systems. But the proliferation of software systems, with little coordination and not enough support and maintenance of complex and fragile computer systems, can be counterproductive, especially if paper-based systems that are difficult to reintroduce upon failure of the computer system are abandoned Vian and Bates,