Support Services
A.
Administration
The effective administration of this division is critical to the success
of the health care delivery system.
supplies,
the, providing
Under this division the purchasing of
of preventive and required maintenance,
coordination services for health care is domiciled.
to work closely with all
the other divisions
and the
This division will have
to meet their needs in an
economical and efficient manner.
In the discussion which follows each area is defined providing their
respective concerns
and responsibilities.
The
general
area
of
support
services has been a major problem for the present health delivery system.
It
is felt that by having the support services as a free-standing division a
more uniform and efficient system can be put into place.
B.
Supplies
Supplies have been a perpetual problem for the Marshall Islands health
care system.
Because of the lack of supplies some services
have been
discontinued, compromised in quality, or delayed in delivery.
At or near the root of this problem is the fact that bills are not
consistently paid and the outstanding debts have caused many suppliers to
discontinue service to the Marshall Islands.
This has resulted in shortages
in various areas from time to time, both in the hospitals and outlying
clinics and also in premium prices being paid for those supplies which are
purchased.
Another
difficult
area
is
that
surrounding
distribution, and consumption of supplies.
the
inventorying,
There is essentially no system
of monitoring and control, particularly with the outlying clinics, but also
in the hospitals.
There have been times when departments would need certain
supplies and they have been told that there was none, only to discover later
that a significant quantity was on hand.
The Adventist Health Services has
recently begun working on this problem by taking complete inventories of
their hospital supplies.
Delivery of supplies to outer clinics has been a problem from time to
time since it is largely dependent on the copra field ships.
These ships
routinely make stops at the various atolls for the purpose of picking up
copra, but can be used to carry supplies to the atolls.
Their schedules,
however, are somewhat tentative, and breakdowns periodically occur which
can drastically alter their arrival.