The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
SPECIAL FEATURE | THE INDEPENDENT | As part of the innovation to make customer relations friendlier, National Medical Stores has come up with the Smart Care, a set of digital products to enhance real time feedback.
With this service, public health facilities and the general public can now provide and receive feedback on the medicine and medical supplies delivered by NMS as soon as any concern arises from the customers.
Previously, to forward a concern it involved filling up paper based forms and sending by courier to NMS.
For far-off clients the process was tedious too, often taking nearly three months before receiving any feedback.
In some instances, such communication would disappear on the way or get damaged hence no feedback received or reaching either party.
“NMS had no visibility when the lower facilities (HCII, HCII, and HCIV) received their supplies. NMS would have to rely on paper documents (delivery notes) returned to NMS and this too would take lots of time, sometimes close to a quarter of the year,” said the Chief Stores and Operations Officer, Mr. Paul Okware.
He said the tools are designed in such a way that they are able to simultaneously offer different channels through which public health facilities and the general public are able to send feedback to NMS based on their convenience and needs.
The Smart Care system further gives NMS visibility on deliveries made in real time, when the deliveries are made, who receives the supplies and if there are any issues related to the deliveries.
Among the channels used for the Smart Care is the NMS Smart Care APP (found in Google Play Store for android devices) through the link http://smartcare.nms.go.ug and largely used for sending feedback to NMS.
The NMS Last Mile Delivery APP (Found in Google Play Store for android devices) and online – http://dmt.nms.go.ug/ has also been devised to help customers know where NMS is delivering in real time. A client can also send SMS to 6090 and all SMS to this short code are available free of charge.
Besides, a Live Chat is also available via the link http://www.nms.go.ug, an option that has made the experience more interactive and lively.
To make it easier for people without smartphones or internet access, the Smart Care service has been made possible by sending an SMS to 6090.
“If it is an issue to do with orders, go to messages on your phone, type the order number (e.g. 05849) leave space, type your message and send to 6090. If it is anything else that has nothing to do with orders, type the word FEEDBACK, leave space, type your message and send to 6090,” an advisory on the service explains.
Benefits of the Smart Care
Internally, NMS Smart Care has enabled NMS to greatly improve on the resolution time and effective handling of feedback submitted by public health facilities. Every feedback is received, logged and assigned to the appropriate officer for action, minimizing chances of stealing government medicines.
Due to NMS Smart Care, NMS now resolves over 200 complaints per month as compared to 300 complaints that used to be resolved in a whole year.
NMS Smart Care also generates statistics and reports that have enabled NMS to greatly improve and strengthen NMS’ Core Value of Customer Satisfaction.
The NMS Smart Care through its Last Mile Delivery tool – http://dmt.nms.go.ug/ has enabled NMS to be accountable to the public in the distribution of medicines and health supplies.
Short messages are sent out to the District Health Officer (DHO), Members of Parliament on the Health Committee, stakeholders in the Ministry of Health and other interested members of society whenever NMS delivers supplies to the respective districts and facilities.
This has helped NMS to be accountable to the public and the public can now access information on where NMS has delivered, what it has delivered, the nature of supplies, who received the supplies by just accessing – http://dmt.nms.go.ug
