Inventory Management of Medical Store in a Selected Tertiary Public Hospital

Abstract

Background: The inventory management of medical store is needed to protect medicine from damage, loss, theft or wastage and to ensure the availability of necessary medicine for saving patients life in a hospital. Materials and Method: A cross sectional study that carried out in Dhaka Dental College Hospital from January to December 2019. The respondents were all the workers working in the medicine store, from them data were collected through face to face interview by a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire and observational checklist. Result: About 85.71% respondents said drugs were purchased from Essential Drug Co. Ltd and 14.28% respondents said drugs purchased from Central Medicine Store Depot. All the respondents of medicine store mentioned about maintaining receipts and vouchers during drug purchasing. Also all respondents mentioned about presence of medicine receiving authority after delivery and confirmed expiry date checked during receiving medicine. About 87.71% respondents said record keeping methods were mainly manual in medicine store. Medicine store was well ventilated, air conditioner and refrigerator was present. But there was no humidity and pest control facility seen in medicine store. Inventory analysis was found to be done only by ABC method. Conclusion: Depending on the opinion for challenges of management practice, there was lack of training; insufficient staff and less invest on modern technologies got priority. The study recommends ensuring implementation of modern technologies and 5S concept and arrangement of training program for the inventory personnel to increase their efficiency and improve quality service.