Lead Time in Drug Procurement: A Study of Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital of North India

Pharmaceutical procurement is a complex process that involves many steps, agencies, and manufacturers. Procurement lead time is defined as the time required to acquire the supplies and services and then placing them in the hands of the user. This study was done to study the lead time in drugs procurement at Government Medical College and Hospital, Chandigarh. It was aimed at calculating the average lead time in the procurement of drugs for year 2009—2010 in Pharmacy Department. Observational study along with retrospective record analysis was done to calculate the average internal and external lead time. Standardized format was used to retrieve data from the procurement records. Average lead time between the preparation of indent and receipt of drugs was observed to be 162 days, out of which 117 days (71%) accounted for internal lead time and external lead time was 47 days (29%). Internal lead time was approximately four times that of external lead time. Various reasons were noted for longer duration of internal lead time and every effort should be made to bring it down to the minimum, so as to ensure the availability of the right medicine in the right quantity, in the right time at the right place. How to cite this article Anand H, Siddharth V, Goyal V, Koushal VK. Lead Time in Drug Procurement: A Study of Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital of North India. Int J Res Foundation Hosp Healthc Adm 2016;4(1):16-19.