Electronic Medicines Management in Namibia

In Namibia, managing and dispensing medicines was a mammoth manual task for hospital pharmacists. Patients, many of whom traveled from rural areas, often spent hours waiting for service. We introduced a district-level e-health system, based on an electronic stock card, that speeds the ordering, issuing, and receiving of pharmaceutical supplies and tracks stock status, leading to faster and more reliable access to medications. The system gives pharmacy staff more time to accurately procure and stock medicines and tend to patients. Along with an electronic dispensing tool that we also helped develop in Namibia, the electronic stock card drastically reduced patient waiting times at participating hospital pharmacies. In one hospital, in just one year, the wait time dropped to an average of 20 minutes—down from as long as 6 hours.