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Medical inventory software manages healthcare products at your facility. Inventory systems manage everything from pharmaceuticals and surgical supplies to outpatient consumables and gift shop products.
While there are general inventory management systems out there, healthcare facilities need a custom software. While a traditional brick-and-mortar store needs to manage inventory like apparel or food, the healthcare industry has to handle controlled substances and delicate medical devices. A medical inventory software manages all your industry-specific products so you can stay focused on treating patients and providing the best healthcare possible.
Using a medical inventory system can benefit your healthcare facility in several ways:
Healthcare facilities are often hectic, and spending time manually tracking your inventory is incredibly difficult. Yet you need a way to ensure you have all your medication, surgical supplies, and other medical materials in stock. Any miscount you or your staff make could lead to shortages. Upgrading from spreadsheets to automated medical inventory software can save time by preventing human error.
By using an inventory system, you can reduce human error which often leads to missing medication and product shortages. Further, a digitized record lets you get real-time updates on drug usage and supply status from any mobile device.
When medical products expire, they need to be efficiently removed from your stock. Expired drugs may not work as intended and can cause additional health problems to your patients. Streamline your product removal processing by setting automated alerts for when prescriptions expire.
If a drug is recalled, traceability modules can organize your collection and disposal efforts. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has guidelines for how to properly handle and dispose of harmful and defective medication. After the drug is safely removed automatically update your stock to reflect the new counts and mark which medications are safe alternatives.
Drugs are incredibly costly. Changes in patent status can lead to sudden changes in the price of medication. With inventory costing software, you can accommodate price increases and decreases in your budget. If a medication is too expensive to regularly purchase, you can start looking for cheaper generics in order to keep your costs down.
There are many medications which are defined as “controlled substances” and cannot be dispensed without a prescription. Yet you need to keep these drugs in stock for your patients. How do you protect these medications? The first step is keeping accurate counts at all times. Next, know who is allowed access to certain drugs and who has an active prescription.
Medical centers are switching to electronic health records (EHR) to secure patient information. This digitized system lets doctors and nurses update patient prescriptions online. General inventory management systems do not account for HIPAA regulations. By using a specialized medical inventory software, you can maintain HIPAA compliance when recording which items your facility uses with specific patients.
There are many unique problems with medical inventory management which can be solved by using the right software:
The last thing you want to deal with during a global pandemic is a shortage of basic essentials at your medical facility. Medical inventory software organizes all your patient and medication records in easy-to-access locations so you can prevent shortages. See which drugs are about to run out and get your orders in before everyone else.
A benefit of medical inventory software is it accounts for more than just medications: you can track consumables like gloves, wipes, face masks, and other necessary supplies you might need in an emergency situation. Set automated replenishment thresholds to alert your staff of low stock products so you can reorder before you run out.
While traditional storefronts only need to worry about revenue loss from shoplifting, medical facilities who lose track of medications may face fines and citations for violating controlled substance regulations. The FDA even has special measures to protect the integrity of the drug supply chain in order to prevent contamination, tampering, and theft.
A medical inventory management system keeps you in control of harmful substances and in compliance with FDA guidelines. You’ll be able to maintain an accurate record of which drugs are in stock and which have been dispensed.
Many pharmacies operate in coordination with retailers to supply customers with medications and essentials in one place. Even hospitals have gift shops and cafeterias. A single inventory management system may not be enough to account for all the intricacies of medical inventory and your general stock.
For example, you might work with medical devices like pacemakers and heart valves which need to meet production tracking regulations. In the event of device failure, you’ll need to track which products are still in your inventory. Otherwise, a patient could wind up with a defective heart valve. While general inventory management tools can provide some traceability for expired food and beverage, it’s simply not designed for the rigorous tracking of medical devices and controlled substances.