Tammy’s Highlights for Week #2 –
- Seeing the customized inventory tracking software used by an importer / wholesaler / distributor, to track stock and sales across branches around Kenya
- Meeting MEDS, importer and distributor for faith-based hospitals and other organizations
- Having Margaret work in our “office” for an afternoon – she has been spending nights on chronic disease systems for Miti and days with Moi University on tablet education so checking in was great
- Speaking with the nurse at a small, one-room public facility, an hour outside of Kilogoros town by dirt road, and watching him use VECNA’s tablet-based electronic medical record system
- Learning about the chemist in town and her retail POS software and computer purchased for 30,000/-
I’m writing this a week later and already it is hard to separate out what we learned this week and what we have learned after. I spent the two days with Ciiru visiting wholesalers of drugs and non-medical equipment to better understand the supply chain ecosystem, from identifying overseas suppliers to imports to distribution and retail. Then Jess joined us to travel out to the Transmara to see where VECNA has partnered with public facilities and implemented an electronic medical record system on tablets.
In one chemist shop, the manager had spent 30,000/ for a large desktop computer with a retail POS system (designed for groceries) to print receipts for her customers and better manage inventory. A traveling salesman from Nakuru had come through her town to sell the system, and convinced her it was worth the investment. Ultimately though, it was too large to sit on her counter, she had yet to invest in a printer, and her frontline pharmacists found the system too complex so they continued to work in paper and someone entered the data into her computer afterwards.
Some observations from wholesaler meetings and the Transmara
- Wholesalers are typically selected on the basis of credit, ability to deliver, and comprehensiveness of products/services and quality. Credit, especially, is valued
- Chemists often come across their suppliers through medical reps, who go from chemist to chemist (even far outside the main cities)
- Chemists often serve as the stop gap and place of referral when public and private facilities are out of stock
- For a clinic, the ability to facilitate filling out their many required MOH reports is a good “hook” to offset the time it takes to learn, master, and use reporting systems
