Some
‘improvement mas come with the
Marshall Islands.
supplementary
initiation cf service from Air
This is used and should continue to be used only as a
means
of
distribution
since
it
is
significantly
more
expensive.
Recommendations :
1.
The problem of not reimbursing
suppliers
should be taken care of
through the administrative structure suggested in section IV.
With
these suggested changes it should then become more feasible for the
funds budgeted for supplies to be available for prompt payment of
invoices.
A separate department should be set up independent of the hospitals for
the organization, coordination, and control of the supply function for
hospitals and clinics.
The person in charge should have sufficient
expertise and experience to handle the inventory control and supply
system for a health care system of this size.
The physical location of
this department can remain at the hospital provided adequate storage
space exists.
Development and maintenance of standard inventory lists for each of the
hospitals and outlying clinics.
One list could be developed for use in
most of the clinics since their situations will most likely be very
similar to one another.
Lists such as these would make it very easy
for the community health worker or health assistant to determine which
supplies they are in most need of.
apply to the hospitals.
This same reasoning would also
As new supplies are adopted, additions and
deletions should be made to keep the list up-to-date.
Development of usage patterns related to workload so as to be able to
establish standing orders of some supplies and anticipate needs of all
units.
Biweekly communication between the central supply depot and outlying
centers with regard to needed supplies so that the central supply depot
can make use of all opportunities to keep the outlying units supplied.
For example, a particular clinic may be running low on a particular
medicine due to a local epidemic.
If the central depot is kept aware
of the situation, alternate emergency shipments may be arranged for
through private boats or through Air Marshall Islands.