A novel approach for improving supply chain management for SARS-CoV-2 point-of-care diagnostic services in resource-limited settings

This was a multiphase mixed methods study consisted of three phases, starting with a geospatial analysis to assess the spatial distribution of COVID-19 point of care (POC) testing services in the Mopani District. Phase 2 involved an audit of primary healthcare (PHC) clinics providing COVID-19 POC diagnostic services to evaluate the impact of supply chain management (SCM) on accessibility and identify barriers and enablers. Based on the findings from the initial phases, Phase 3 employed a nominal group technique (NGT) to collaborate with key stakeholders in co-creating a novel approach for improving SCM systems for COVID-19 POC diagnostic services.

For geospatial analysis, ArcGIS 10.8.2 software was employed to determine the following:

i) the physical location of PHC clinics and district hospitals (areas of supply)

ii) the population distribution (areas of demand)

iii) calculated the travel distances from areas of demand to areas of supply

iv) examined variations of spatial accessibility in different areas and 

v) identified areas with a paucity of COVID-19 diagnostic services.

For the audit, we utilised an audit tool and the dataset contains the supply chain management compliance score for all the audited facilities. For the NGT, we used a qualitative data analysis approach (involving key stakeholders) in the co-creation of a novel approach for improving SCM. The dataset contains barriers and strategies that the key stakeholders identified. The barriers and strategies are ranked according to priority.