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Effect of Inventory Management Practices on Healthcare Delivery and Operational Performance of Sunyani Regional Hospital

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Abstract

Inventory management is crucial in organisations, including the Ghana Health Service. This study was carried out to assess the effects of inventory management practices on the healthcare delivery and operational performance of Sunyani Regional Hospital. A descriptive survey research design was used. Fifty respondents were randomly selected from the procurement, pharmacy, store, records, finance, and administration departments. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data for the study. Data analysis was based on frequencies and percentages via the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software and Excel. The study revealed that the hospital uses suppliers to manage inventory for the hospital (mean = 4.34; SD = 1.10), the hospital has computerised all inventory management systems (mean = 4.30; SD = 1.07), and there is good communication between the hospital and its suppliers (mean = 4.01; SD = 1.05). Moreover, the study revealed that inventory management practices contribute greatly to the healthcare service delivery of Sunyani Regional Hospital (mean = 4.26; SD = 1.09) and help in inventory planning and scheduling in Sunyani Regional Hospital (mean = 4.14; SD = 1.18) and that improved customer service can be realised with proper inventory management at Sunyani Regional Hospital (mean = 4.10; SD = 1.19). The challenges facing the hospital were delays in drug delivery resulting in inadequate inventories (mean = 4.32; SD = 1.42), inadequate funds for procurement (mean = 4.28: SD = 1.84), bureaucratic processes in procurement (mean = 4.25; SD = 1.80), understocking/overstocking (mean = 4.21; SD = 1.62), and conflicts of interest (mean = 4.13; SD = 1.68). The study recommends that the government, together with the Ministry of Health, support the health sector with enough funds to prevent the understanding of health products.

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No datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions, which helped improve the quality of this work

Funding

The authors received no funding for this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Procurement and Supply Chain Management, Sunyani Technical University, Sunyani, Ghana

    Johnson Nsowah & George Agyenim-Boateng

  2. Procurement Unit, Sunyani Technical University, Sunyani, Ghana

    Augustine Anane

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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by JN, GAB and AA. The first draft of the manuscript was written by JN and AA and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Augustine Anane.

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Nsowah, J., Agyenim-Boateng, G. & Anane, A. Effect of Inventory Management Practices on Healthcare Delivery and Operational Performance of Sunyani Regional Hospital. Oper. Res. Forum 6, 13 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43069-024-00405-w

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