Evaluating Inventory Management Practice of Antiretroviral Drugs in Public Health Facilities of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Background: The right to safe and effective treatment is an exclusive right that depends on the robustness of the domestic health care system. Methods: A facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted from January 01 to February 01, 2020. Ten eligible hospitals and 12 randomly selected health centers were parts of this study. A total of 66 RRFs and 308 bin cards were reviewed. Data were collected through observation, record and report review, and physical count using an observational checklist. In addition, 44 semi structured interviews were conducted. The collected data were entered to MS Excel sheet and analysed using SPSS (version 20) software. The correlation test result was determined statistically significant at p<0.05. Results: Twenty-two public health facilities were included in the study of which 16 (72.72%) health facilities had at least one stock out. Availability of ARVs had very strong positive correlation ship with bin card updating practice (r=0.9 1, P<0.01), inventory accuracy rate (r=0.912, P<0.015) and very strong negative correlation ship with wastage rate (r = -0.66, P<0.001). The wastage rate due to expiration and loss was 3.9%. The mean bin card accuracy was 90.6%. RRF reports were accurate 17 (77.3%), complete 7(32%) and reported on time 14 (63.64%). Only 8 (36.36%) health facilities met acceptable storage conditions. Conclusion: The availability of bin cards and reports and resupply forms was promising, but the data quality remains low. The majority of health facilities did not meet acceptable storage conditions and had frequent stock-outs.