Analysis of the effectiveness of the strategic outsourcing system of Jazia Prime Vendor in complementing medical stores department in Singida Region, Tanzania

Abstract

Background. Governments in developing countries are gradually implementing new ways and systems to streamline and improve community supply chain management because it is so important to their economies. Globally, governments are investing heavily in streamlining and improving public supply chain management, including online tender management. In Tanzania, the availability and accessibility of the health commodities is one of the main indicators to measure the performance of the health system. In most of the health facilities, the availability of the medicine has never turned to 100% despite several measures taken to strengthen the system. The Ministry of Health has tried to establish several interventions to increase medicine availability, but they have all failed to satisfy the needs of customers.

Methods The study used descriptive cross-sectional study design. Descriptive and inferential statistics such as frequency, mean and regression analysis were used to analyse the data with the help of SPSS version 25. Descriptive statistics were used for all objectives. Inferential statistics, including the Paired sample T-Test, were used to determine the mean difference in commodity availability in public health facilities before and after PVS. The percentage of each health facility's availability of health commodities was analyzed and compared between the average before and after Prime vendor. In terms of order lead time, it was calculated by subtracting the time it took to order health commodities from the Prime Vendor and the days it took to receive health commodities at the health facilities. However, the difference between ordered and received commodities was used to calculate the order fulfillment rate by Prime Vendor to health facilities. The percentage of on-time payment by health facilities was calculated by counting the number of days a consignment was received and the day payment was made to the prime vendor

Results The mean was higher after PVS (M=59.17, SD=6.12) than before PVS (M=54.39, SD=5.36). The difference in means (difference=4.779) was statistically significant (t (138) =-9.488, p the contractual period while 217 (39.3%) were paid beyond the contractual period. However, 171 (31%) of orders were not documented. A total 320 (58%) of orders were delivered within the contractual period while 114 (20.7%) orders were delivered beyond the contractual period. However, 118 (21.3%) of orders were not documented.

Conclusion Jazia Prime Vendor System has insignificant impact on ensuring health commodities availability to the public health facilities. This has been revealed through a little increase of percentage availability of health commodities after implementation of Jazia Prime vendor system, significant lower order fulfilment rate from PV to health facilities, Significant low delivery rate to the health facilities but also delay in paying the prime vendor. However, the health care providers are not satisfied by the performance of Jazia PVS.