The Situations and Problems on Inventory Management Practices in Sub-District Health Promoting Hospitals: A Case Study of Muang District, Maha Sarakham Province

Abstract

Background: The act of transferring sub-district health promoting hospitals missions to provincial administrative organization, drug costs analysis and inventory management situations that support the organization by having inventory management information to manage inventory with a maximum benefit for people in the area.

Objective: 1) to analyze drug costs database 2) to study the inventory management practices level in its process 3) to compare the differences in the inventory management practices and its features and 4) to study the problems, obstacles and suggestions of the operation.

Methods: Mixed method research divided into 2 phases. Phase I: Quantitative research was drug cost analysis, a survey study of inventory management practices using questionnaires. Subjects were selected by purposive sampling to inventory control responsible personnel. Descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U test, and Kruskal-Wallis test were applied for data analysis in a quantitative study. Phase II: Qualitative research, in-depth-interview were conducted with 17 inventory control responsible personnel and data were analyzed by using thematic analysis.

Results: Drug costs were 3,448,368.31 baht 3,545,575.95 baht and 3,871,026.28 baht respectively in the 2020–2022 budgetary years. Chronic disease drug costs and amount of patients were 63% – 67% and 11% - 17% of the total, respectively. Inventory management practices all were at a high level. Personnel with differences in age, sex, experience, and occupation were not statistically significantly different with inventory management practices level (p>0.05). Practices problems consisted of workload which was excessive workload, planning problems which were lack of procurement planning, inventory control problems which were drugs insufficient and out of date inventory data, quality of drug storage problem was substandard drug storage. Solutions to those problems were work allocation, drug procurement planning, computer technology or network technology, and providing supportive budget.

Conclusion: Drug costs tend to increase while the proportion of chronic diseases drug costs is high. High levels of inventory management practices and problems of practices were workload, planning, inventory control and quality of drug storage.