Abstract
Introduction
Drug shortages are predominantly reported to have adverse economic, clinical, and humanistic outcomes for patients and cause possible medication errors from attempts to replace missing medications. Optimal medicine management helps ensure that essential medicines are available at an affordable price. This study aimed to describe drug consumption patterns and assess the supply sources of health commodities at Batheay Referral Hospital (BTRH) from 2020 to 2022.
Methods
A descriptive study was used. The data from the 2020–2022 annual consumption and expenditure of medicine and health commodities (laboratory reagents and chemicals, consumable medical supplies) were extracted from the drug management system (HosDID) and pharmacy records and analyzed via a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. VEN analysis (vital, essential, nonessential) of medicine consumption on the basis of the Cambodia Essential Medicine List was also presented.
Results
On average, 231 items were consumed annually, of which medicines made up 62.3% (144 items), consumables 29.9% (69 items), and reagents 7.8% (18 items). The three most consumed medicines in terms of quantity during the study period were paracetamol 500 mg, multivitamins, and omeprazole 20 mg. The consumption of NCD-related medicines (amlodipine 5 mg, metformin 500 mg) increased from 2021 to 2022. The VEN analysis revealed that vital drugs (V) accounted for an average of 71.3% (103 items) of the total drug consumption at the BTRH, essential drugs (E) accounted for 13.4% (19 items), nonessential drugs (N) accounted for 7.6%, and nonformulary medicines accounted for an average of 7.6%. The CMS provided to BTRH includes mostly oral medicines (69.1%), consumables (27.3%), and reagents (3.6%). The hospital had to purchase additional injectable medicines and most medical supplies. Approximately 90% of the reagents were supplied by hospital budgets, whereas the CMS solely provided national program reagents.
Conclusion
The V and E drugs accounted for 84.7% of the total drug expenditure, and 7.6% of the drugs in this study were nonformulary. CMS is the hospital's primary source of health commodities, but its supply is still insufficient to meet hospital needs, particularly for injection medicines, medical supplies, and laboratory reagents. Therefore, the government should allocate adequate funds to healthcare services to ensure the availability of essential medicines and medical supplies.