Effective inventory management is crucial to the success of any business affected by the supply chain. In the pharmacy industry, inventory management becomes even more critical as a late order or shipment can result in the delay of medical procedures or, even worse, medication errors. The way a pharmacy manages its inventory directly affects its liability and, consequently, the long-term sustainability of its business.
“Adverse patient outcomes related to drug product shortages have prompted aggressive management strategies by healthcare providers and gained the attention of the Joint Commission, the government and the media. Drug product shortages adversely affect health-system finances by increasing the cost of delivering patient care, largely through higher drug acquisition and personal costs. In addition, shortages create a high level of frustration for everyone involved, including purchasing agents, pharmacists, nurses, physicians and patients.”[1]
Balancing the twin demons of cost and demand can be a daunting task for any pharmacy as they work to accommodate hundreds to thousands of prescription orders a day in a seamless, safe and responsive fashion. In a KLAS study titled Growing Pharmacy Inventory Management Complexities Increase Hospital Need for Comprehensive, Integrated Solutions Coray Tate, the project’s author states that “Using automation software was significantly better than manual tracking, and some reported dramatic financial savings after moving from a manual process.” He later adds, “Hospitals need to improve their medication inventory management processes to help reduce costs. Automation needs to be a big part of the answer, and vendors need to deliver improved solutions to a larger potion of their customer base. Automation may not be able to solve all problems, but it can be a big part of the solution…” [2]
Earlier this year PCSI released a new stand-alone inventory solution to beta. This system is hosted in the cloud and designed to give pharmacies the freedom and flexibility needed to manage inventory, maximize profits and spend more time with patients. Compatible with leading browsers, tablets and smart phones this system allows users to:
“Adverse patient outcomes related to drug product shortages have prompted aggressive management strategies by healthcare providers and gained the attention of the Joint Commission, the government and the media. Drug product shortages adversely affect health-system finances by increasing the cost of delivering patient care, largely through higher drug acquisition and personal costs. In addition, shortages create a high level of frustration for everyone involved, including purchasing agents, pharmacists, nurses, physicians and patients.”[1]
Balancing the twin demons of cost and demand can be a daunting task for any pharmacy as they work to accommodate hundreds to thousands of prescription orders a day in a seamless, safe and responsive fashion. In a KLAS study titled Growing Pharmacy Inventory Management Complexities Increase Hospital Need for Comprehensive, Integrated Solutions Coray Tate, the project’s author states that “Using automation software was significantly better than manual tracking, and some reported dramatic financial savings after moving from a manual process.” He later adds, “Hospitals need to improve their medication inventory management processes to help reduce costs. Automation needs to be a big part of the answer, and vendors need to deliver improved solutions to a larger potion of their customer base. Automation may not be able to solve all problems, but it can be a big part of the solution…” [2]
Earlier this year PCSI released a new stand-alone inventory solution to beta. This system is hosted in the cloud and designed to give pharmacies the freedom and flexibility needed to manage inventory, maximize profits and spend more time with patients. Compatible with leading browsers, tablets and smart phones this system allows users to:
- Manage an unlimited number of catalogues for specialty, formulary or value priced drugs.
- View historical transactions for drugs in a specific catalogue.
- Search across the entire system with a simple and easy to search function.
- Transfer items between catalogues with one click.
- Establish reorder points and automatically generate purchase orders.
- Share inventory across multiple pharmacies.
- View time stamps and see what users did and when.
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