| dc.description.abstract | Performance in public hospitals has been in downward trend with top management of such facilities being blamed for mismanagement. Services in such facilities has been hampered with lack of critical items as drugs which has been attributed to poor inventory management. Inventory management is considered one of the main components of organizations supply chain management which creates customer value-performance. The concept attests to this argument by emphasizing inbound logistics which acts as a pointer to organization performance. Further, knowledge on customers’ satisfaction is important in developing countries like Kenya, where public hospitals are struggling with access to services by the growing population. It is not clear, in these organizations, what role inventory management plays in creating customer value, which today is the most important source of sustained performance. Moreover, inventory planning and inventory control relationship with organization performance has left the academia has given mixed results creating more confusion. The purpose of the study was therefore to analyze the relationship between inventory management and performance of public hospitals, a case of Siaya District Hospital. Specifically the study sought to investigate the relationship between inventory planning and performance, establish the relationship between inventory control and performance and establish the relationship between inventory operations and performance of Siaya District Hospital, Kenya. The study was guided by a conceptual framework in which the independent variable is inventory management practices and dependent variable is performance. The design adopted for the study was correlational design. The population comprised of 163 employees of the hospital. A saturated sample of the 163 employees was interviewed. Data was collected from primary sources. Primary data were collected using semi structured questionnaires. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Inferential analysis revealed that performance had a weak positive but not significant correlation with inventory planning (r=0.012, p>0.01), a weak positive but significant correlation with inventory control (r=0.323, r<0.01) and a weak negative but significant correlation with inventory operations (r=-0.283, r<0.01) furthermore, it was established that Inventory planning (ß1= 0.044, p>0.01) was positive but insignificant predictor of performance of district hospital. Inventory control (ß2=0.291, p<0.01) as positive and significant predictor of performance of district while inventory operations (ß3= -0.252, p<0.01) was negative but significant predictor of performance of district hospitals. The study concluded that there was no significant relationship between inventory planning and performance while there was significant relationship between inventory control and inventory operations and performance. It was recommended that stakeholders invest much in inventory control and inventory operations. The finding is useful to industry players in monitoring their performance in relation to their inventory management practices. | en_US |
