| dc.description.abstract | Majority of Kenyan hospitals are encountering challenges such medical stock-out, less qualified personnel, outdated equipment, lesser use of ICT, inadequate health infrastructure, poor leadership and governance. This research explored the effect of
internal factors and performance of the procurement process of medical supplies in the chosen firm among the level five hospitals in the Upper Eastern region, Kenya.In particular, the researchers investigated how ICT infrastructure, staff competence,
and leadership affect performance of procurement process of medical supplies. It was founded on the resource-based view theory (RBV), the Experiential Learning Theory in Procurement Competence and the systems theory. The research employed a correlation research design and the quantitative approach. The study employed census deign to utilize total population of 30 stakeholders who are prominent in procurement activities in the respective six public level five hospitals in the Upper Eastern region of Kenya. The research employed primary data which was collected 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 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, multicollinearity tests and heteroscedasticity tests. Findings were summarized in tables and figures. The
study revealed that all independent variables (ICT infrastructure, staff competence, and leadership) had statistically significant positive impacts on performance of procurement process of medical supplies in the public level five hospitals in Upper
Eastern region of Kenya. Conversely, the firm size did not significantly moderate the relationship between internal factors and the performance of the procurement process as none of the interaction terms were found statistically significant at a 5% critical level. It means that the positive influence of ICT infrastructure with a coefficient of β = 0.712 and a p-value of 0.025< 0.05, staff competence with coefficient β = 0.860 and a p-value of < 0.001 < 0.05 and coefficient for leadership was β = 0.766 and a p-value of < 0.001 < 0.05 on performance remains consistent regardless of variations in firm size with a an F-statistic of 7.970 and a corresponding p-value of 0.0002 (p < 0.05) among the surveyed public level five hospitals in the Upper Eastern Region of Kenya. The study recommends strengthening ICT infrastructure, enhancing continuous staff training and competence, promoting accountable leadership in procurement, and applying uniform procurement standards across hospitals irrespective of size to improve procurement performance in public level five hospitals. These findings are significant as they provide empirical evidence to guide policymakers and hospital administrators in enhancing procurement efficiency and accountability within public healthcare institutions | en_US |
