This publication is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Cooperative Agreement Strengthening High Impact Interventions for an AIDS-free

Generation, number AID-OAA-A-14-00046. The information provided does not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, PEPFAR, or the U.S. Government.

AIDSFree SUCCESS STORY

Zambia is incorporating social media into its successful push to improve the operations of its pharmaceutical supply chain. More than 900 operators of the country’s electronic Logistics Management Information System (eLMIS) turn to the popular messaging service WhatsApp to share operational tips and encourage each other to submit orders and reports on time.

Mercy Sitali, a medical laboratory technologist at Sinda Zonal Clinic and avid user in Zambia’s Eastern Province, calls the information she accesses on WhatsApp “an eye opener.”

“I had a challenge of sending [a] facility report, but after consulting on the reporting, I was shown how to do it,” she says.

WhatsApp group members include facility, district, and provincial health commodity managers and users. The groups are organized by province and managed by pharmacists within the Ministry of Health.

Dr. Jabbin Mulwanda, the Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary for Health Services, explains the state’s interest in an efficient pharmaceutical supply chain operation: “As a ministry, we do not have adequate resources to buy drugs that will only go to waste; therefore we need to use what we have responsibly. I am excited to note that the system is able to track information,” he says.

Facility installations of Zambia’s eLMIS have grown from 48 to more than 587 service delivery points across all 10 Zambian provinces in just two and one-half years. WhatsApp offers a way for operators of the fast-growing system help each other function at a higher level even as more sites come onboard.

WhatsApp Helps Reduce Emergency Pharmaceutical Orders in Zambia

Mercy Sitali, Laboratory Technologist at Sinda Urban Health Centre, uses WhatsApp for service delivery improvement.

NOVEMBER 2018

By Bridget Kakuwa AIDSFree Zambia Knowledge Management & Communication Manager

Sour

ce: B

ridge

t Kak

uwa/

AID

SFre

e Za

mbi

a

AIDSFreeJSI Research & Training Institute, Inc.1616 North Ft. Myer Drive, 16th FloorArlington, VA 22209 USATel.: +1 703-528-7474Fax: +1 703-528-7480Email: info@aids-free.orgWeb: aidsfree.usaid.gov

The authors’ views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Agency for International Development or the United States Government.

Installation and maintenance of Zambia’s eLMIS is supported by the Strengthening High Impact Interventions for an AIDS-free Generation (AIDSFree) Project through the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief with the United States Agency for International Development. AIDSFree places at least one staff member in each of the WhatsApp groups to provide technical services.

The Mangango Mission and Kazungula Clinic in Western Province recently used WhatsApp to help move crucial reagents for assessing a person’s immune system to where they were needed most. When Kazungula learned that Mangango Mission’s supplies were nearly stocked out, the clinic sent over some of its surplus. This type of success, some say, even has had the unintended effect of encouraging the use of eLMIS itself.

Kennedy Mfula, a pharmacist at Kabwe General Hospital and member of the Central Province group, says he uses WhatsApp to learn how other facilities are using the eLMIS.

“There was a time that I could not issue out drugs using the system. Then I quickly posted on the group if anyone had ever encountered such a challenge and within a few minutes, I was advised to restart my computer. It worked then instantly,” he says.

Generally, emergency ordering is a key target of eLMIS’s WhatsApp groups and the system’s quality control efforts. Rush orders are disruptive to smooth functioning of the supply chain and indicate a risk of patients going without life-saving medication. Since June 2017, emergency orders as a percentage of the total have declined, the result of WhatsApp and other system initiatives.

2016-05 2016-09 2017-01 2017-05 2017-09 2018-010

1

2

3

4eLMIS Reduces Emergency Orders to Less than 4% Across All Program Areas for Two Years