Drug inventory management at public healthcare institutions – a case study

Public healthcare institutions in India continue to be the major source of healthcare in both rural and urban areas. This study has considered resource utilisation in the context of drug supplies to the public healthcare. Drug inventory management assessment tool (DIMAT) is developed to quantify the shortcomings of the drug supply/management in terms of performance indicators. This is followed by a simulation study to access the performance of the system with the set of measurable parameters used in DIMAT and develops an approach to model inventory policies of public distribution system. The study also provides an insight into the causes of the outcomes of the public drug distribution in the state of TamilNadu, India. The primary healthcare centre (PHC) constitutes the sample for the study. This study can be extended beyond PHCs and can be used for estimating the budget for pre-specified service levels.