FIRM’S ICT INFRASTRUCTURE AND PERFORMANCE OF PROCUREMENT PROCESS OF MEDICAL SUPPLIES AMONG PUBLIC LEVEL FIVE HOSPITALS IN UPPER EASTERN REGION, KENYA

Abstract

The majority of Kenyan hospitals are encountering challenges such medical stock-out, poor infrastructure, less qualified personnel, outdated equipment, lesser use of ICT, poor health infrastructure, poor leadership and governance. This research explored the impact of the ICT infrastructure on the performance of the procurement process of medical supplies in the public level five hospitals in the upper eastern region, Kenya. It was founded on the resource-based view theory (RBV) theory. The research employed a correlation research design and the quantitative approach. The study population was 30 stakeholders who are prominent in procurement activities in the respective six level five hospitals in the Upper Eastern region. The research employed primary data which was gathered by drop and pick methodology using structured questionnaire. The analysis was performed with Python 3.12.7. The analysis involved the use of both descriptive and inferential statistics in which statistics such as mean percentage frequency and standard deviation were adopted in preliminary analysis and t-test and F-test in hypothesis testing at 5% level of significance. The analysis employed a regression analysis and diagnostic tests which covered normality tests and heteroscedasticity tests conducted. Findings were summarized in tables and figures. The findings revealed that ICT infrastructure had a statistically significant positive impact on performance of procurement process of medical supplies in the public level five hospitals in Upper Eastern Region Kenya. This study recommended optimizing ICT infrastructure in the hospital procurement processes and standardization of hospitals. The findings of this study implies that the government should increase resources for optimizing ICT infrastructure in public level 5 hospitals to improve the performance of procurement process. The findings of this study would be useful to the public and the private sponsors of medical supplies in the public hospitals, suppliers of medical facilities within the public health sector, and ultimately the users of the health supplies indirectly.