An audit in drug inventory management in medical ward of Seberang Jaya Hospital

Drug inventory is the largest investment a pharmacy department can make. Dealing with inventory can be difficult unless an organization has a good inventory control system. The purpose of the system is to maximize efficiency.-and effectiveness. Efficiency is to minimize costs and effectiveness is to meet the patient pharmaceutical needs. In medical ward of Seberang Jaya Hospital, the supplying of medication is using combination of the new unit dose and the traditional floor stock system. The rationale of having the combination is to reduce medication errors as well as increase cost effectiveness thus providing a better pharmaceutical care. To date, there are no specific study to actually audit the system itself alas the main aim of this study is to verify the effectiveness of the drug inventory management in medical ward in Seberang Jaya Hospital and come up with an enhanced monitoring system for the medical ward for a better drug inventory management and eliminate or at least reduce risks of errors and fraud. Specifically, the study's objective are determine the current policies and standard operation procedures of HSJ to account for their pharmacy inventory, verify strengths and weaknesses of the current inventory control system, provide appropriate measures to be adopted to minimize risks from the weaknesses and threats and to reduce the wastage of drug that being use in the ward. It will give an enhancement and design the pharmacy department could adopt for a more effective and efficient inventory system. In the study, it is found out that the system is rather incomplete and basic. Among the recommendation given are creating ROP for floor stock item, appoint a ward staff in charge of drugs and supervision during receiving. In storage, FEFO system should be introduced as well as restrict access to stockroom. Drug inventory system in wards should not be taken lightly as it is the frontiers of healthcare sector especially in government hospital such as Hospital Seberang Jaya. This study has shown the strength and weakness of the drug inventory system practice in HSJ. We have also proposed recommendation to further optimize the system with policies and procedures. We would like to see future study to assess the changes we recommend.