Improving health outcomes through performance monitoring of supply chain management in public health programs

Improving overall public health outcomes requires the reliable availability of a range of quality health products. Ensuring this supply, in turn, requires effective and affordable supply chain management (SCM) strategies to efficiently manage and distribute these products. The application of appropriate metrics should lead to improved supply chain performance, increasing product availability to clients. One challenge in establishing world-class performance for public health supply chains is the lack of agreed-upon performance metrics and the data to benchmark logistics programs in lower- and middle-income country public sector health programs. Commonly used supply chain indicators such as stock out rates are merely management outputs, not sensitive to specific performance issues. They therefore mask the causes of weak performance in specific activities such as transportation and inventory management, hindering a timely response to problems. On the other hand, finer supply chain metrics highlight more precisely where interventions will improve performance. Supply chain metrics are commonly applied in private sector logistics operations, but may need to be adapted to developing countries' context. The focus of the current work is to develop a set of relevant and measurable supply chain metrics that promote operational performance improvement at all levels of service from central medical stores to hospitals to health facilities providing essential health services. This comprehensive set of supply chain metrics covers issues of quality, responsiveness, cost, and productivity. Improving supply chain performance by monitoring specific, measurable metrics can lead to increased product availability and ultimately to better health outcomes.