Development of A Drug and Medical Inventory Management System

Abstract

Effective drug and medical inventory management is critical in supporting medicines and supplies in response to public health emergencies. This study aims to compare the average time it takes to process medicines and supplies per withdrawal cycle. Before and after it was developed by applying information technology and vendor inventory management system (VMI; Vendor management inventory), a quasi-experimental research study was conducted (Quasi-Experimental Research) in a period of 14 months from January 2021 till March 2022 by using paired sample t-Test statistics and was carried out by collecting data on the amount of time it took for disbursement before the process improvement. Subsequently, the procedures were improved as follows: 1) Workflow analysis was performed to find waste in the disbursement of pharmaceuticals by using (VSM; Value Stream Mapping) 2) Develop a plan to develop a drug and medical supplies disbursement system to reduce wasted work processes by introducing information technology and vendor inventory management systems (VMI; Vendor Management Inventory). This to apply to drug warehouse refilling medicines and medical supplies at the dispensing point. When the amount decreases below a certain level, 3) Initiate the VMI drug and supplies disbursement process and collect the disbursement timeline after the process improvement. When new workflows are developed by applying information technology, VMI systems, connecting inventory and utilization data between the drug warehouse and the drug dispensing room, makes it possible to reduce the workflow from original 10 steps to 6 steps in the post-development process. Comparing the data on the average time spent in distributing medicines and medical supplies per 20 withdrawal cycles, it was found that average time spent in the pre-development process was 3105.50 ±15.63 minutes. The average time spent in the post-development process was 605.50 ± 23.42 minutes comparing to paired sample t-Test statistics. Therefore, the average time spent in the post-development process was significantly reduced. It was statistically significant at the 0.05 level ( p-value = 0.00). Developing drug and medical supplies disbursement processes by applying information technology and VMI systems can reduce the average time per withdrawal cycle, is an important part in the development of drug and medical inventory management for more efficiency.