A Framework and System Design for Medicines Resources Allocation: A Multi-Stakeholder Assessment of Processes and Electronic Platform Needs

Abstract

Utilizing resources effectively is becoming more critical, especially with the ever-increasing healthcare cost. Little is known about the current practices used by healthcare organizations for the procurement, allocation, and utilization of medical resources. Moreover, the available literature needed to be enriched to bridge the link between resource utilization and allocation processes’ performance and outcomes. This study investigated the processes that major healthcare facilities in Saudi Arabia apply to procure, allocate and utilize medicines resources. The work explored the role of electronic systems and provided a system design and conceptual framework to enhance the availability and utilization of resources. A three-part multi-method, multi-field (healthcare and operational), and multi-level exploratory and descriptive qualitative research design were used to collect the data that was analyzed and interrupted to feed the “future state” model. The findings demonstrated the current state procedure and discussed the challenges and the experts’ opinions on developing the framework. The framework includes various elements and perspectives and is designed based on the results of the first part and was further validated by experts who were optimistic about the inclusiveness of this framework. Some major technical, operational, and human factors were perceived as obstacles by the subjects. Decision-makers can adopt the conceptual framework to gain insights into interrelated objects, entities, and processes. The findings of this study can imply future directions for research and practices.