Institutional drug management problems and issues

Abstract

Self administered questionnaire and check list were used as tools of quantitative technique while interviewer guide used as the tool for qualitative technique. Operative factor ( performance of operative staff of the pharmacy department), resource factor ( resource of the pharmacy department), management factor ( commitment of hosptal managerial stff) in intra institutional factor category and resource provision factor ( resource provision to pharmacy department ) higher authority factor (commitment of higher authority), drug distribution factor (commitment of drug distributors to hospital) in extra instititional factors category were the selected factors. This study revealed that the institutional drug management in the study hospitals of the Western Province was significantly below the expected level. Almost all hospitals were in a state of inadequacy of drugs which ranged from 9 - 35 percent. Non availability of drugs may probably be due to non adherence to programmed supply and reported high quality failures. Withdrawals due to quality failure were significant. The study has made feasible recommendations relevant to organizational management, human and other resource mangement for sustainablr effectiveness in institutional drug mangement within the current context and even with paradigm shift by reorganizing the system. Out of many recommendations, few are highlighted as ; to develop a software to conmputerize the inventories and an efficient information system through computer network, to establish a method to fix the accountability for waste of drugs, to strengthen in-service training, to develop morms for facilitating the assessment of workload, to motivate the staff through assurance of performance based incentive and proper promotion scheme. and it is also recommended to establish an independent monitoring body at central level to monitor procurement, distribution and outcomes of drug management. Considering that the implications are costly, it recommends the need for a comprehensive island wide research in this regard.