Integration of Supply Chain Systems and Healthcare Performance: a Case of Afya Ugavi Project, Migori County, Kenya

Abstract

Integration of Supply Chain Systems improves Supply Chain Performance ensuring commodity security. Effective Health Supply Chains are critical in provision of health services therefore improving Healthcare Performance. Kenyan public hospitals have employed parallel vertical Health Supply Chain Systems over a very long period which have been experiencing many challenges leading to disruptions in the Supply Chain. Consequently, many hospitals have faced high stock out rates, uncoordinated procurement of health commodities in most of the counties, poor or incomplete data for decision making and lack of basic commodity management training among staff manning supply chain activities. The aim of the research was to determine the influence of Integration of Supply Chain Systems on Healthcare performance in Migori County, Kenya. This study was guided by four research objectives as follows: integration of Inventory Management Systems, integration of Quantification Systems, integration of Logistics Management Information Systems and integration of Human Resource Management (HRM) Systems. The research design for this study was descriptive survey. The study focused on 23 hospitals where the sample size was 275 respondents comprising of 133 supply chain managers, 142 key interview informants. A questionnaire and interview schedule were used for data collection. Statistical Package for Social Science was employed in data analysis. The results established that even though integration of all the four systems of health supply chain have a positive effect on healthcare performance, only Logistics Management Information Systems (β = 0.392; P-Value < 0.05) and HRM Systems (β = 0.321; P-Value < 0.05) have a significant effect on healthcare performance. On the contrary, integration of Inventory Management Systems (β = 0.071; P-Value > 0.05) and integration of Quantification Systems (β = 0.059; P-Value > 0.05) have an insignificant effect. This therefore leads to the conclusion that enhancing integration of HRM systems through practices such as skills development, supportive supervision and performance review can remarkably enhance healthcare performance. The study also concludes that strengthening logistics management information systems by putting in place practices aimed at ensuring availability of data, timeliness and data completeness can significantly improve healthcare performance. The study recommends to the respective managers of the hospitals to invest in practices that ensure there is good integration of inventory management systems by stocking according to plan, ensuing accuracy in stock transactions and having systems to detect early stockout rates. The study also recommends a keen and dedicated focus towards enhanced investment in integration of quantification systems. Specifically, there is a need to invest in practices such as using modern forecasting tools, resource mobilization and minimization of forecasting error by improving the quality of data used for quantification.