Tuesday, 20 January 2015
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This is the first of a series of TechNet postings to assess alternative definitions of field-level indicator(s) matching each of the proposed monitoring objectives. For now and based on this posting, please let me know your feedback:

  • Are any of these objectives NOT needed to monitor distribution?
  • Would you express any objectives or our goal differently?
  • Are there gaps, indicator objectives that are missing?

SC performance indicator objectives

Our goal is to enable health workers and managers to monitor:

  • The availability of vaccine when and where it is needed
  • The efficiency with which vaccine is distributed
  • The compliance with temperature requirements that is a surrogate for vaccine quality

Objectives important enough to be monitored in the field include:

  • (Availability) All types of vaccine and related diluents should be supplied at an adequate rate to remain continuously in stock and available for use:
  • (Efficiency) Arrivals of fresh supplies of vaccines should be complete, at the time pre-planned, in quantities sufficient to remain in stock continuously until the next supply and in quantities sufficient to meet the demands of fixed and outreach immunization:
  • (Efficiency) The percentage of vaccine stock that is administered compared to the total consumed, including wastage and safety stock, should remain within national targets:
  • (Efficiency) The storage capacity of refrigerators and their capacity for icepack freezing should be sufficient now and for future target. Down-time of equipment should not exceed national policy or 10% of the evaluation period and response time of repair services, less than 1 week.
  • (Quality) The temperature of vaccines in storage and in transport should remain within the range +2C and +8C at all times and the reporting of WHO temperature alarm occurrences, heat and freezing) should remain at zero.

My next posting will explore the first of the above five objectives comparing alternative indicator definitions from the point of view of access to data and/or measurements, analysis and interpretation by health workers and their supervisors. I am hoping that discussion around each field-level indicator will help to consolidate the rationale for using one or more indicator definitions to evaluate trends in the performance of managing vaccine distribution. We could then start to build country by country, evidence and lessons learned from field testing.

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