The Influence of ICT Infrastructure Support for Management of Essential Medicine Supply Chain in Health Facilities in Kenya

Abstract

While application of ICT to support management of essential medicine supply chain in public facilities in Counties is increasing, full utilization of digitalization is slowed down by poor or inadequate ICT infrastructure, frequent system breaks down, lack of internet bundles and inadequate digital skills to support management of essential medicine supply chain at all levels of the health system. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of ICT infrastructure support for essential medicine supply chain management in public healthcare facilities in Kenya. The study employed both quantitative and qualitative research design. The study sites were Kajiado, Makueni and Mombasa Counties. Simple random sampling and purposive sampling were used to identify respondents to the study. The research focused on medical professionals including medical officers, clinical officers, pharmacists, health records personnel, pharmaceutical technologists, and procurement officers, along with key informants selected from 11 level 4 and 3 level 5 public healthcare facilities across three counties. A total of 150 participants were selected using the formula devised by Nasiurma D.K (2000) at a confidence level of 95%. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through a combination of 12 key informant interviews and 143 semi-structured questionnaires. The collected data underwent cleaning, transformation, and analysis using NVivo, Qualitative Data Analysis (QDA) Miner, and SPSS software. The study revealed that most public hospitals in Kenya do not have sufficient functional computers to support processing of digital information for managing essential medicine supply chain. The findings also reveal that while most public hospitals in the counties of Kajiado, Makueni and Mombasa have electricity connectivity, most of them do not have reliable internet to support inter computer connectivity and timely digital essential medicine information communication between units and departments for timely management of essential medicine supply chain process. The study is significant to all stakeholders because it provides evidence for strengthening ICT infrastructure and digitalization information processing and sharing to support efficiency in management of essential medicine supply chain.