Inventory management plays an essential role in the healthcare industry today. The system provides detailed information regarding inventories of medicines and batches. It is also highly useful in helping maintain a clear record of doctor’s equipment. In short, inventory management helps to proper manage the inventory, sales orders, purchases, and payments of your healthcare facility.
Why Inventory Management is Important for Healthcare Facilities
An inventory management system allows hospitals and other healthcare facilities store and maintain updated stock records. This is highly applicable to surgical equipment and pharmaceuticals which makes the system one of the most important tools that supports healthcare processes.
As surgical equipment and pharmaceuticals are some of the primary items used in a healthcare facility, each facility needs to keep a consistent record of said items in a significant amount. On top of that, records of degradable products and vaccines that are used during surgical procedures also need to be stored.
As we are aware, medicines are expensive and so is surgical equipment. With proper inventory management, healthcare facilities can help in keeping track of the movement of the equipment and medicine supplies.
Difficulties Faced by the Administration of Healthcare Facilities
- Theft or misplacement of pharmaceuticals
- Theft or misplacement of surgical equipment
- Shortage of pharmaceuticals
- Tracking of expiry date for pharmaceuticals
- Generating bills
- Generating sales reports
- Sorting medicines
- Preventing theft of medical device
How Does Inventory Management Help Overcome the Challenges?
Inventory management systems provide an update when pharmaceuticals are depleting in stock and how much current stock there currently is. The system also helps in tracking all the medicines to assist healthcare facilities manage the expiry dates of medicines so new orders can be put in place.
For asset tracking, inventory management is efficient in preventing thefts for surgical equipment, medical devices, and medicines. The system also provides an update regarding the condition of the said equipment and supplies so a maintenance program can be developed.
Healthcare facilities also have medical devices that are implantable such as surgical clips which are small in size but costly in price. This makes it vulnerable to thefts. With inventory management, the serial numbers of tiny medical devices can be tracked to know their exact location before they are being issued to patients.
Advantages of an Inventory Management System
- Check in and check out of assets – Asset tagging can be implemented for assets through the use of serial numbers. Tagging process is important to support asset tracking.
- Stock management – Apart from stock tracking, inventory management can also provide an update regarding expiry dates of stocks.
- Using analytics – The analytics provided by an inventory management system are useful for healthcare facilities to make informed decisions about stock demands.
- Real-time tracking – Real-time tracking is possible with an inventory management system which is to provide updated and accurate records of inventories.
A healthcare facility serves many purposes and provides various services to the community. Behind all the hard work, there needs to be a proper inventory management system to help the staff better keep track of medicine supplies and devices. This will in turn help the facility enhance profit margins to support continuous operations.