Evidence mapPaperPMID 37444672Full record

ArticleHealthcare (Basel, Switzerland)2023

Perceptions of and Practical Experience with the National Surveillance Centre in Managing Medicines Availability Amongst Users within Public Healthcare Facilities in South Africa: Findings and Implications.

Marco F Falco, Johanna C Meyer, Susan J Putter, Richard S Underwood, Hellen Nabayiga, Sylvia Opanga, Nenad Miljković, Ephodia Nyathi, Brian Godman

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland), 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
9citing papers in PubMed
field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

9 citing papers in PubMed.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors.

Marco F FalcoDepartment of Public Health Pharmacy and Management, School of Pharmacy, Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, Garankuwa, Pretoria 0208, South Africa.ORCID 0000-0003-1261-7836
Johanna C MeyerDepartment of Public Health Pharmacy and Management, School of Pharmacy, Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, Garankuwa, Pretoria 0208, South Africa.ORCID 0000-0003-0462-5713
Susan J PutterUnited States Agency for International Development Global Health Supply Chain-Technical Assistance, Hatfield, Pretoria 0083, South Africa.
Richard S UnderwoodUnited States Agency for International Development Global Health Supply Chain-Technical Assistance, Hatfield, Pretoria 0083, South Africa.
Hellen NabayigaManagement Science Department, Strathclyde Business School, University of Strathclyde, 199 Cathedral Street, Glasgow G4 0QU, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-2213-0418
Sylvia OpangaDepartment of Pharmacology, Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacy Practice, University of Nairobi, Nairobi P.O. Box 30197-00100, Kenya.
Nenad MiljkovićInstitute of Orthopaedics Banjica, University of Belgrade, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia.
Ephodia NyathiAffordable Medicine Directorate, National Department of Health, Pretoria 0001, South Africa.
Brian GodmanDepartment of Public Health Pharmacy and Management, School of Pharmacy, Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, Garankuwa, Pretoria 0208, South Africa.ORCID 0000-0001-6539-6972

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The introduction of the National Surveillance Centre (NSC) has improved the efficiency and effectiveness of managing medicines availability within the public healthcare system in South Africa. However, at present, there is limited data regarding the perceptions among users of the NSC and challenges that need addressing. A descriptive quantitative study was performed among all registered active NSC users between August and November 2022. Overall, 114/169 users responded to a custom-developed, self-administered questionnaire (67.5% response rate). Most respondents used the Stock Visibility System (SVS) National Department of Health (NDoH) (66.7% for medicines and 51.8% for personal protective equipment (PPE) or SVS COVID-19 (64.9% for COVID-19 vaccines) or RxSolution (57.0% manual report or 42.1% application programming interface (API)) for reporting medicines, PPE, and COVID-19 vaccines to the NSC and were confident in the accuracy of the reported data. Most respondents focused on both medicines availability and reporting compliance when accessing the NSC, with the integrated medicines availability dashboard and the COVID-19 vaccine dashboard being the most popular. The respondents believed the NSC allowed ease of access to data and improved data quality to better monitor medicines availability and use. Identified areas for improvement included improving internet connectivity, retraining some users, standardising the dashboards, adding more data points and reports, and expanding user adoption by increasing licence limits. Overall, this study found that the NSC in South Africa provides an effective solution for monitoring and improving medicines availability.

Indexed as

health systems strengtheningmedicines availabilitymedicine value chainNational Surveillance Centrepublic healthcare sectorRxSolutionSouth AfricaStock Visibility Systemvisibility and analytics network-operating model

Identifiers

PMID37444672
PMCPMC10341119

What Socratic holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.