Your patient is your top priority, but as a medical professional, don’t forget the critical role inventory plays in your organization’s success. Pharmaceutical and surgical equipment, medication, specimens, and so forth, all need to be properly handled and maintained from the moment they reach your facility. To that end, inventory management is a vital component in the success of any medical establishment.
The last thing you want is to have inventory become obsolete or worse — lose track of inventory altogether. Below, Orlando Medical News presents techniques you can use to get organized and discover what technology can help you keep your inventory in order.
Implement SaaS Technology
Small and large health care organizations alike rely on software to run their daily operations. Whereas on-premises software used to be the norm, cloud-based software — also known as software as a service (SaaS) — has proven to be a better solution for most organizations. As Imaginization explains, cost is often a determining factor when health care entities are choosing their SaaS tools.
Chances are good you already use popular SaaS solutions like G Suite, Salesforce or Dropbox in your daily operations. Maybe you connect with patients for telehealth visits or share files via the web. Or maybe you’re using an electronic medical records app like DrChrono. Such choices help the facility, individual staff members and patients keep information organized and centralized, and they encourage engagement.
Do Regular Inventory Checks
Software can help you keep your data organized, but it can also be used to keep track of inventory. Even so, it’s important to take inventory to organize your storage areas, identify when it’s time to order more stock and determine when to cull items that are no longer serviceable.
Even if your inventory list or software is kept current, it doesn't mean your inventory is all there in your storeroom. Inventory can get misplaced and suppliers can accidentally send the wrong quantity or item, which can lead to efficiency problems and other concerns. To avoid these issues, The Balance notes it’s a good idea to do floor-to-sheet audits or implement a cycle count program to keep yourself on track. Another way to manage inventory is to use RFID tags to track all your assets. These tags can improve inventory visibility, but if you’re scaling up your business, they may be cost-prohibitive.
Revamp Your Organization Methods
Even with a great inventory management system in place, it’s hard to succeed and meet customer expectations if your stockroom is disorganized. Utilizing vertical space by getting better shelving is one of the best ways to maximize your storage area. It’s also logical to store like items together so it’s easy to find them. Ideally, you should also label where everything is, which is especially important for items kept out of sight in boxes.
As a bonus, getting organized can also help you save space. Better use of space allows for added equipment and other opportunities for improvement and expansion. By staying on top of your organizing efforts, you can maximize all of your available square footage and delay upgrading to a larger facility with a more expensive lease.
Revamping your organization methods can extend to how you handle shift scheduling as well. With the assistance of shift scheduling software, you can assemble easy-to-read schedules for all of your employees. And if necessary, you can send alerts about changes to the shift schedule that your employees will receive in real time.
Enlist the Help of a Freelancer
Implementing a new software solution or improving your data entry methods can do a lot to help your organization. However, these tasks don’t necessarily justify hiring a full-time employee. Once you’ve identified a few solutions that will work for your circumstances, look for a freelancer that can help you execute these ideas. For example, hiring a certified ethical hacker is a great way to ensure your data systems are secure. And ethical hacker recruitment is simple through platforms such as Upwork.
Similarly, you can work with other professionals on a one-time basis to help implement efficient solutions. Hiring a professional organizer who specializes in businesses, for example, can ensure you get your storage areas into shape.
As a medical professional, few things get in the way of safety and efficiency more than an inventory issue. Fortunately, inventory management is entirely within your control. Implementing new software solutions, taking regular inventory and getting more organized are just a few ways to take your organization to the next level.
