Inventory Management of Drugs at a Secondary Level Hospital Associated with Ballabgarh HDSS- An Experience from North India

Introduction: Effective management of medical stores entails supervision of important drugs, and priority setting in purchase and distribution of drugs. Studies have mainly explored the inventory management at tertiary-care settings. Objective of this study was to explore the optimal drug inventory management technique suitable for a secondary care hospital. Method: Procurement, consumption, and expenditure data of drugs was analysed at the secondary level sub-district hospital attached to the Comprehensive Rural Health Services Project (CRHSP), of the Ballabgarh Health and Demographic Surveillance system, in Northern India. The annual procurement of, and expenditure incurred on drugs for financial year 2012-13 was analysed using inventory control techniques, based on expenditure (ABC), criticality (VED), and a combination matrix of ABC-VED. Results: Total annual expenditure on 182 drugs was Rs 6,495,785 amounting to 21% of hospital budget for the financial year 2013-14. ABC analysis revealed 10.4%, 19.8% and 69.8% drugs as A, B and C category, respectively, accounting for 69.7%, 21.2% and 9.1% of annual expenditure. VED analysis showed 31.9%, 53.3% and 14.8% items as V, E, and D category, respectively, accounting for 12.1%, 84.5% and 3.4% of annual expenditure. On ABC-VED matrix analysis, 40.6%, 46.7% and 12.7% drugs were found to be category I, II and III, respectively, accounting for 77%, 21.8% and 1.2% of annual expenditure. Conclusion: Using ABC-VED matrix could achieve both time saving and assured availability of needed drugs by closely supervising category I that comprised 40% of all drugs. ABC-VED matrix analysis system is an optimal drug inventory management system at a secondary health care setting.