A Comparative Study of Purchasing and Stores Management in Private and Public Hospitals

ABSTRACT

Every organization, be it primary, manufacturing, or service depends on materials and services to enhance its operations. Material requirements are either in their raw form, which are used as inputs in the manufacturing process or finished goods, which are used as consumables in the running of the organization. To ensure continuity of operations, organizations require systematic and regular supply of materials, which must be purchased and stocked to be issued, out when the need arises. Purchasing and Supply is therefore one of the basic and most important function of every organization. Indeed no organization can operate effectively and successfully without materials, equipment and services. In the public health institutions in Ghana, purchasing and stores management function has not been approached professionally as it should be. As a result most public hospitals such as Korle Bu Teaching Hospital have experienced malpractices in this area, which have attracted criticisms from the general public. Little has been heard about the private hospitals with regards to problems and malpractices in the field of purchasing and stores management. It is in the light of problems associated with purchasing and stores management in public hospitals that the researcher decided to undertake comparative study of purchasing and stores management of private and public hospitals to find out, first, which of the hospitals meets professionals standard in purchasing and stores management. Secondly, to make the necessary recommendations to be implemented by those institutions which do not meet the professional standard of practice in order to improve the Purchasing and Stores Management functions to achieve efficiency and effectiveness. Purposive sampling technique was used to select two public and two private hospitals. The two public hospitals were Kibi District Hospitals, located at East Akim District of the Eastern Region, and Koforidua Central Hospital located at Koforidua also in the Eastern Region. The two private hospitals were Holy Family Hospital, located Nkawkaw in the Kwahu South District in the Eastern Region and Ashanti Goldfields Company Limited Hospital otherwise known as Ashanti Goldfields Company Hospital which is located at Obuase in the Adansi West District of the Ashanti Region and Ashanti Goldfields Company Limited Hospital otherwise known as A.G.C. Hospital which is located at Obuasi in the Adansi West District of the Ashanti Region. The former is owned and run by the Koforidua Diocese of the Catholic Church and the latter is owned and run by Ashanti Goldfields Company Limited a Mining Company in Ghana. Data for the study were obtained from both secondary and primary sources. The secondary sources included hospital reports, minutes of meetings, research findings, newsletters and newspapers. Primary data were collected through two main methods namely, personal interview using questionnaire as a guide and personal observation. The personal interview was the main method of data collection and personal observation was used as complementary method. Three officers of the Hospital, Administrator, the Purchasing Officer or the Supplies Officer/Stores Officer and Accountant from each of the hospitals were selected as the respondents for the personal interviews. The interview questionnaire was divided into two sections - one on purchasing and the other on stores management. The questionnaire and interviews inquired about the availability of qualified purchasing and stores staff, authorization of purchases, purchasing initiation, segregation of stores, purchasing and accounting duties, availability of stores and purchasing departments, security at stores, availability of storage facilities, computerization of stores and purchasing functions, procedure for accepting goods to stores, supplier evaluation, registration of suppliers, assessment of stores performance and many others. Some of the questions were open-ended and others were closed-ended and multiple choice. The responses from the personal interview were recorded manually. Content analysis and descriptive statistics were employed to analyze the responses. The content analytical method was used for the open-ended questions. The statistical package for social sciences (S.P.S.S.) was used for the statistical analysis. The results indicated that Ashanti Goldfields Company Hospital met professional standards in almost all the indicators used in the study followed by Holy Family, and Koforidua Central and Kibi District Hospitals - in that order. Kibi District Hospital, one of the Public hospitals was most deliquent in the professional practices. Recommendations were made for implementation by the public hospitals in order to improve the purchasing and stores management to contribute to the efficiency and effectiveness of these hospitals. In addition, the Ministry of Health was advised to understudy in detail the Ashanti Goldfields Company Limited Hospital’s purchasing and stores management for possible adoption by all public hospitals.