India, Survey Data - Management Sciences for Health

About SEAM Country Assessments
In 2000, Management Sciences for Health (MSH) received a grant from the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation to identify and test innovative approaches to address and ameliorate the lack of
access to essential medicines in developing countries by increasing the participation of the
private sector. Brazil (State of Minas Gerais), Cambodia, El Salvador, Ghana, India (State of
Rajasthan), and Tanzania were identified as countries where SEAM would assess the feasibility
of improving access as per the mandate of the Gates Foundation grant. These assessments were
carried out between February and May 2001.As an integral part of the initiative, SEAM sought
out local, private not-for-profit, academic, and other research organizations with expertise in
health-services research to collaborate in the assessments, contributing to the adaptation of data
collection instruments, sample selection, data collection, and analysis.
The assessments included facility-based survey questionnaires, simulated client visits, and
patient exit interviews. The present files include the data specifically from the following surveys
and interviews.
1. Health facility survey. This includes information on operations and supplier performance,
prices paid and charged, and prescription and dispensing, as well as an inventory review
of tracer items and collection of samples for product quality testing. Types of facilities to
be include—
� Medical stores/depots (central, regional, district)
� Public health facilities (clinics and hospital outpatient departments)
� Private not-for-profit clinics and hospitals (NGOs, church/mission, other)
� Private for-profit facilities (hospitals and clinics)
2. Retail drug outlet survey. This includes information on operations and supplier
performance, an inventory review of tracer items and prices, and samples for product
quality testing.
3. Sample of items for quality testing. Ten tablets of six to eight items were collected or
purchased from each facility visited.
4. Exit interviews. Where relevant (i.e., in the outpatient department), exit interviews
conducted with patients receiving a prescription.
5. Simulated client. Data collectors posing as clients or patients presented symptoms to
dispensers in retail outlets to document prescribing/dispensing behavior.
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