According to Dennis Ndwiga, Senior Programs Officer at Kemsa, the iLMIS system represents a fundamental shift in the authority’s approach, instilling confidence among development partners who have long sought transparency and accountability in the agency’s operations.
This newfound transparency allows donors to monitor key performance indicators through the system, ultimately enhancing commodity security and supply chain efficiency.
Ndwiga said Kemsa, health facilities and stakeholders use i-LMIS to identify and know where the commodities are and whether they are available for Kenyans.
He said the move has helped to avert stockouts and eliminate wastage in health facilities across the country.
“LMIS is a system for an active decision support system for national commodity security, it has three sub-systems in it. It has the Commodity Early Warning and Alert system which assures the availability of commodities in the health facilities,” he said.
Ndwiga further added that the i-LMIS contains the Allocation System that uses the Artificial Intelligence Principle which gets an average monthly consumption from health facilities to determine what should be replenished from Kemsa.
He said the system contains a mobile application, the Electronic Proof of Delivery that ensures commodities are delivered in full, on time and error-free.
Ndwiga added that the system has helped to reduce stock-out rates for family planning from 15 per cent to three per cent across the country.
“We are working towards zero per cent of health facilities that are stocked out on a particular commodity in family planning. Availability of products in the facilities has been enabled through the use of the system. It has enabled the providers in the health sector to have visibility of where commodities are at a given time,” he said.
Since the rollout of the integrated LMIS in 2022, approximately 8,500 health facilities out of 9,500 facilities have adopted the system for managing commodities, ordering, and receipt of Program HPT.
Ndwiga added that on-site training was provided to County and Sub-County Health Management Teams, who reported improved ease of use and order accuracy.
The teams were able to assess different terrains; review Order Turnaround Times (OTAT) and analyze the distribution system's performance effectively.
The enhanced visibility enabled better funding prioritisation for various program commodities, especially those underfunded.
The system supported policy guidelines on commodity management, enabling order management through AI-driven allocation to ensure optimal stocking and automated quantification.
The move led to a 60 per cent reduction in the cost of expiries for program HPT, resulting in significant savings in the supply chain.
According to Kemsa, there was a notable improvement in delivery timelines (reducing OTAT from 20 days to 7 days), an increase in order fill rates from 65 per cent to 99 per cent and enhanced visibility of scheduled deliveries.
The timely resolution of customer complaints further improved the availability of HPT in the supply chain.
Ndwiga said that the system has been rolled out to all 47 counties for family planning and is currently in the process of finalizing rollout for other diseases.
“That is one of the big impacts that the system has realized so far, on-boarding of other programs, and also on-boarding of essential medicines because of the aspect of commodity visibility in the supply chain,” he added.
The successful use of i-LMIS in the Family planning programme has influenced other national programmes to shift and adopt its full use to reap the benefits of commodity end-to-end visibility.
Implementation for the programs is currently in progress including HIV, TB, Malaria, Ophthalmology, Nutrition, Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD), and Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) among other programs.
Mtwapa Sub County Hospital Medical
Superintendent Dr Samiya Mabruk said the i-LMIS technology has been helpful, especially in commodity storage.
Dr Mabruk said before the new
technology, they were storing the medical supplies in an unconducive environment.
She added that the drug store uses the
i-LMIS system has helped in commodity management terming it as the best
facility in the county.
Dr Mabruk hailed UNFPA-Kenya for the
support accorded to the facility to boost family planning including the adoption of
technology for proper management of supplies.
She noted that working closely with
Kemsa saw the refurbishment of a drugs store at the facility that is fully run
through -LMIS system.
Dr Mabruk said working closely with the International Centre for Reproductive Health-Kenya (ICRH-Kenya), which is an implementing partner for UNFPA-Kenya, for advocacy that has boosted the provision of family planning services at Mtwapa Sub County Hospital.
Dr Terry Kamau, chief pharmacist, at Mtwapa Sub County Hospital, reiterated the importance of i-LMIS technology in the hospital operations.
She said the hospital has been ordering their medical supplies from Kemsa through i-LMIS.
“You are given the rights as the pharmacist in charge to order through the system and then you receive. When you receive, we have the Kemsa e-POD where you enter what you have received and manage the stocks,” she said.
“We have a soft copy of all the items in the store and pharmacy so you are able to check what you have and can order when you run low at any time.”
Dr Kamau added that compared to the manual system, i-LMIS is real-time which helps to track the stocks and the expiry of the commodities.
“We can track inventory in real-time and record what we’ve received thanks to the system.” We can place new orders straight from the app when stock levels are low. Additionally, it is simple to keep an eye on everything because we have a soft copy of every item in the pharmacy, store, and other locations,” said Dr. Kamau.
Dr Fatia Wangala, a pharmacist at Kwale Sub-County Hospital, said iLMIS has transformed the process of procuring medical commodities, especially family planning.
She said iLMIS, which is integrated with the Kenya Health Information System (KHIS), enables healthcare facilities to update their monthly consumption reports digitally.
These reports are automatically synchronized, allowing iLMIS to pull data directly from KHIS. This eliminates the need for manual data transfer and significantly reduces turnaround time.
“LMIS has simplified the entire supply chain process. From quantification and placing orders to reviewing data and preventing stock-outs, it has been an invaluable tool in ensuring we meet the needs of our facilities,” said Dr Fatia during an interview at Kwale Sub-County Hospital.
Dr. Stella Mukobi, the Pharmacist in Charge at Mwema Maternity Hospital in Likoni sub- county lauded the iLMIS platform saying it has helped the facility achieve a continuous supply of essential health products.
“As a facility, we have embraced iLMIS which has enhanced accountability visibility and also transparency. We usually do quarterly orders to ensure, a continuous supply of help for medical commodities and technologies through the platform and it has played a vital role in ensuring access to family planning commodities in this community.” Said Dr. Mukobi.
HOW I-LMIS OPERATES
The technology addresses optimal stocking by utilizing artificial intelligence for predictive analysis to forecast demand.
It also enhances visibility by providing real-time data and alerts on commodity status, expiries, damages, and distribution gaps to facilitate proactive decision-making.
The i-LMIS has improved delivery because it ensures On Time in Full Error Free (OTIFEF) deliveries to health facilities.
The technology addresses cost by reducing wastage and operational costs associated with inefficient supply chain management practices.
Ndwiga said that the system works in four principles which are the people, the county, sub-county and national teams.
The teams ensure the flow of commodities and approval hierarchy within the system to ensure the quality is assured of information that is being provided at the national level.
According to the officer, the information is crucial for the replenishment and stocking of the health facilities.
“The other principle is on policy, it rides, under the policy governed provided by the Ministry of Health, we have aligned the system to follow all the policies under the health ministry so that we operate within the framework and strengthen the MOH,” he added.
Ndwiga said Kemsa has automated all the processes within the system, from the facility to when they receive the commodities back at the facility.
“The only challenge we have is that this is below the health facility. We have not been able to cascade the system down to the health facilities, because we are limited in terms of funds. We have received a lot of support from our various partners, who have enabled this system to be cascaded to the sub-county level and the county level.”
Ndigwa added that Kemsa’s i-LMIS earned global recognition by winning an award at the Global Health Supply Chain Summit.
The award was in recognition of the innovative ways of using technology in the Universal Health Coverage.
“The system principle on visibility, the use of AI-enabled Kemsa to get into the global stage and we won the award on the use of the technologies. Many countries are looking forward to the use of these technologies because it's the first in the world,” he said.
He added that the system was praised as a standard-setting innovation for addressing procurement and logistics challenges.
“Many countries are looking forward to coming and benchmark, and also they are referencing on this particular technology so that it can enable proper use of commodities and assure commodity security for their countries.”
The system was further enhanced to support strategic MoH programmes and has been implemented for family planning programmes.
With support from the development partners, other strategic programmes are currently adopting it for order management and enhanced end-to-end commodity visibility, transparency and accountability.
Ndwiga assured that the system is well secured adding that it is within the government security system.
“We are also putting on an extra layer of security through the digital superhighway to ensure the data that is available for the supply chain is reliable and available at any one given time for all the stakeholders, including our development partners,” he said.