Abstract

The vast majority of South Africans depend on public government-funded healthcare. Public healthcare services in South Africa face many challenges related to amongst others, waiting time, inadequate resources and funding constraints. Furthermore, the availability of the correct pharmaceutical stock at primary healthcare clinics is often problematic with excessive amounts of stock reaching its expiry date at these clinics.  This research focuses on four primary healthcare clinics in the Potchefstroom area in South Africa that are supplied with pharmaceuticals by the Tlokwe sub-district distribution pharmacy. We find that pharmaceutical supplies at these clinics are often out-of-stock or expired due to a multitude of factors including the absence of a data management system. In order to solve this problem, we present a data management system for pharmaceutical stock at a primary healthcare clinic that does not require extensive software or hardware layout and is also easy to use for healthcare practitioners. The solution is designed based on industrial engineering principles that critically analyze the system requirements to ensure that the solution is suitable for the unique primary healthcare clinic environment. Our research further elaborates on the additional factors that influence pharmaceutical stock mismanagement at primary healthcare clinics. Finally, we provide results on a pilot run of the implementation of our solution which paves the way for further implementation at other primary healthcare clinics.