OBJECTIVES: COVID-19 Pandemic affected a lot of industries and services around the world including the delivery of pharmaceutical items which plays a major role in the provision of high quality health care. This study aims to investigate the impact of the pandemic on the delivery cycle and the point of re-order of pharmaceutical items in one of the governmental hospitals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabi.

METHODS: A retrospective data were collected for the years 2017-2022 for the period between Mach 23^rd until June 21^st(the curfew period) for all the deliveries and points of re-order of pharmaceutical items. The average delivery times and points of re-order were compared for each respective year. ANOVA and post-hoc tests were used to compare the results

RESULTS: The mean delivery time was the longest for the year 2021 (137.67 days) and shortest for the year 2019 (52.66 days). The Analysis of variance shows that mean difference between all the year was statistically significant (p<0.05) and the post-hoc test shows that the means’ differences between the years 2019 and 2021 and the rest of years were statistically significant (p<0.05). The mean re-order point was the highest for the year 2020 (120.29 Days) and the lowest for the year 2018 (86.33 Days). The analysis of variance shows a statistically significant difference between the mean re-order points for all the included years (p<0.05), and the pos-hoc test shows that the differences between the years 2018 and 2019 and the rest of the years included were statistically significant (p<0.05)

CONCLUSIONS: The delivery time and the point of re-order were not affected immediately during the pandemic year 2020, however, the effect started after the pandemic lockdown and continued to recover for the subsequent years. The results indicates that pharmaceutical items’ delivery and re-order have been impacted by the pandemic