Medication Management Research Paper

Medication management covers a variety of aspect in healthcare system. From selection and procurement down to dispensing of the medicine. People are wondering how the public sector select, where they store, how they dispense and who will benefit to these drugs that are available in government. The goal of Medication Management is to attain the optimum safety, efficacy and appropriate drug therapy to the recipient and to ensure patient-specific medication. This can be possible if there is a collaboration between health care providers and the patient.

The Pharmaceutical procurement system is a primary consideration of the availability drugs and the total health cost. Drug purchases represent the single largest health expenditure. An effective

medication management system ensures the availability of the right drug in the right quantities and qualities are remain standard at any circumstance. Significant components of this system are storage, transportation and distribution. Designing a system for storing and distributing drugs, medical supplies and equipment is necessary (MoH and GNDP, 2009).
The Philippine health care systems is decentralized and managed, coordinated and regulated by the Department of Health (DOH). It is the principal health agency in the country. It is responsible for ensuring access to basic public health services to all Filipinos through the developing national plans, technical standards and healthcare guidelines (DOH, 2015).

Figure 1. Organizational structure & accountability in the health care system
Image of Philippine Healthcare System. Retrieved December 30, 3015.
From http://www/wpro.who.int./asia_pacific_observatory/Philippines_Health_System_Review.pdf

Under the decentralized structure, the state is represented by national offices and the LGUs, with provincial, city, municipal, and barangay or village offices.

When the LGC 1991 was imposed by authority the government system now consist of basic health services-including health promotion and preventive units- provided by cities and municipalities, province-run provincial and district hospitals of varying capacities, and mostly tertiary medical centers, specialty hospitals, and a number of re-nationalized provincial hospitals managed by DOH.

According to the Philippine National Health Accounts (PNHA) the total health expenditure increased at an annual rate of 13.2 percent to P431.0 billion in 2011 from P380.8 billion in 2010. The national government accounted for 12.3 percent and local governments were responsible for 14.7 percent. The remainder was accounted for by social insurance and grants from the rest of the world. As percentage of the gross domestic product (GDP), health spending amounted to 4.4 percent in 2011 from 4.2 percent a year

previous.
The Philippine National Drug Formulary (PNDF) is a regulatory tool of the DOH. This formulary is a list of essential medicines reviewed and recommended by the National Formulary Committee, which serves as a basis for all government drug procurement and for PhilHealth reimbursements (Romualdez et. Al, 2011).
Public Health services provided by Regional Health Units (RHU) are free of charge.

The main problem in these public facilities is availability of both goods and services. There are RHU that belongs to LGU that are accounted to PhilHealth’s outpatient benefit package (OPB), by laws, they are funded by capitation fees collected from PhilHealth. Local Government Units reimbursed a certain amount to every indigent household that are under provision of free outpatient care at the RHUs. Certain studies observed the failure of PhilHealth to properly communicate to the LGUs the intent of the fund as well as to closely monitor the utilization of the capitation fund as the main reason for the underperformance of the OPB (Romualdez et. Al,

2011).
DOH have many services that promotes better health outcomes. The priorities and strategies as of the moment are contained in its health agenda called Universal Health Care (UHC) or Kalusugang Pangkalahatan (KP) that aims to ensure financial risk protection for the poor, to provide access to quality health services and to attain health related Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) which already started this year. Specific health targets include that for TB control are contained in the National Objectives for Health.