Abstract:
The purpose of our study was to assess the effectiveness of working capital management of public health facilities within Kumasi Metropolis by measuring the overall short term liquidity and reviewing the techniques and policies used in the management of working capital components for the past four years thus from 2011 to 2014.
The study design was both exploratory and descriptive, therefore, we adopted both case study and survey strategies in our data collection. Both primary and credible secondary data were used for the study. The study population was 68 public health staffs from the five Ghana health services facilities within the metropolis. We sampled 48 of the administrative staffs within these facilities. We administered questionnaires to our selected sample and conducted unstructured interview to collect data from our busy respondents. The quantitative data were analyzed with Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) whiles inferences were drawn from qualitative data.
In our study, we found out that; 62.5% of public health facilities within Kumasi Metropolis use the moderate working capital funding policy. 32.5% of the population uses the conservative working capital funding policy and 5% of our respondents use the aggressive working capital funding policy. Our study revealed that, 62.5% our respondent of public health facilities within Kumasi metropolis use the Economic Order Quantity techniques in managing their current assets. 20% of our respondents use the ABC analysis in managing their investment in current assets. 17.5% of our respondent use Just In Time techniques to regulate their investment in current assets (inventory). 10% uses none of these strategies. However the use computerized accounting software is very low among public health facilities within Kumasi metropolis. Generally, the overall working capital management has been moderately managed.
In spite of these, the NHIS has the lion’s share of the account receivable structure. This has been hard to collect and has impacted negatively on the operating cycle and the cash cycle. This is increasing the level of accounts payable and overall reduction in the facilities’ liquidity position.
In future studies, we recommend that the researchers study further into the impact of the NHIS on the working capital management towards the provision of quality health delivery within Kumasi metropolis. Such study would provide deeper knowledge on how the NHIS affects the overall liquidity, efficiency and effective quality healthcare delivery to both low and high income earners within Kumasi Metropolis in particular and Ghana as a whole.
