KUMJ | VOL. 24 | NO. 3 | ISSUE 96 | JULY-SEPTEMBER, 2026

Critical Analysis of Pharmaceuticals Inventory Management using the ABC-VED matrix (Always, Better and Control – Vital, Essential and Desirable) in a tertiary care centre in Lalitpur, Nepal
Rauniyar A, Palikhe A, Manandhar T, Bajracharya O, Pragya D, Jha N, Shankar PR

Abstract:
Background ABC-VED analysis is done to have strict inventory control over the items. Category A has 10% items consuming 70% of budget, B has 20% items consuming 20% of the budget and C has 70% items accounting for 10% of the budget. Vital, Essential and Desirable analysis states “V” is for vital items without which a hospital cannot function, “E” for essential items without which a hospital can function but may affect the quality of the services and “D” stands for desirable items, unavailability of which will not interfere with functioning. The study was done to perform ABC-VED analysis and to assess the knowledge of pharmacists regarding drug inventory control in a tertiary care hospital of Kathmandu. Objective TTo perform Always, Better and Control–Vital, Essential and Desirable matrix analysis of the drugs and to assess the knowledge of pharmacists regarding drug inventory control in a tertiary care hospital of Lalitpur, Nepal. Method Drug inventory record of one year (2023-2024) was reviewed retrospectively. Included items were drugs (oral, injectable, inhalational) and exclusion was done to surgical and non-drug items. ABC-VED categorization and ABC-VED matrix calculations along with grouping of drugs according to organ system was done. A questionnaire was used to assess the knowledge regarding ABC-VED and Drug Inventory Control among the pharmacists. Result A total of 1816407 drug items were included in which category I consumed 48.2%, category II consumed 45.8% and category III consumed 6.0% of the total budget. Category I items require topmost level of management. Category II items require top-/middle-level management and category III requires lower-level management. Antineoplastic was the most expensive group while drugs affecting central nervous system was the most inexpensive. All participants had high knowledge about ABCVED (Bloom’s cut off score). Conclusion The budget expenditure according to cost and criticality was found to be good. The knowledge among pharmacist regarding ABC-VED was high.
Keyword : Always, Better and Control - Vital, Essential and Desirable; Budget; Cost; Criticality; Inventory control