Hospital & Clinic Inventory Management

Today's hospitals face many daily challenges — volatile customer demand, little or no inventory visibility, diverse patient care processes, and complex payment structures, all spanning geographically-dispersed facilities! Meeting these challenges puts great demands on their logistics systems, particularly in point-of-use settings, where clinical staff have to manually manage inventory. The human step in the process is very time-consuming and error-prone, and therefore costly.

The Solution

Designed and configured for the hospital supply chain, TECSYS' Supply Management System (SMS) directly addresses all of a hospital's point-of-use challenges. SMS is a user-friendly supply chain execution solution that enables hospitals and clinics to become significantly more efficient at point-of-use locations, freeing up clinical staff to focus on patient care.

With SMS, the supply chain process at point-of-use locations is intuitive and completely automated. SMS uses touch-screen technology to facilitate ease-of-access to information with the least amount of intervention. Products are captured via bar codes and stored in the TECSYS system, enabling purchasing organizations to track usage, re-order to minimums and plan the demand accordingly.

In addition to providing global visibility into inventory levels across the entire IDN, SMS allows the hospital system to analyze the value of those inventories at all locations. Without TECSYS' SMS, the inventory value would be expensed the moment the asset leaves the hospital distribution center.

TECSYS' SMS offers a variety of checkout methods, all supporting various needs and circumstances: wireless RF bar code reader, handheld RF or docking reader, voice feedback or touch screen entry capabilities.

Business Benefits

• Immediate access to supplies anywhere in the IDN
• IDN-wide inventory visibility and automated replenishment
• Reduced waste — no stockpiling or expired products
• Clinical staff-friendly technology, freeing them to focus on patient care
• Significantly reduced manual labor in hospitals and clinics
• The ability to reclaim millions of dollars of uncharged supplies to become billable items
• Significantly improved cash-to-cash cycle

Key Capabilities

Designed for Clinical Users and Work Environment

• Addresses the just-in-time needs of the clinical supply chain
• Easily provides product, availability and alternate location information in real time
• Maximizes the efficiency of caregivers
• Frees-up clinical staff from supply chain challenges to focus on patient care

IDN-wide Visibility

• Provides clear visibility of inventory across the IDN, no matter where the inventory is located
• Provides for accurate and real-time information — products, SKUs, counts and locations
• Eliminates stock-outs

Intelligent Demand Forecasting and Purchasing

• Demand-driven supply forecasting/purchasing based on real-time, accurate information and established par levels
• Automated creation of replenishment requisitions from any location to facilitate replenishment of supply locations
• Informed decisions on usage, orders, reorder points, obsolescence, on hand, availability; visibility of who has what, when and where at each point-of-use location

Optimum Ease-of-Use

• Clinical staff-friendly
• Simple touch-screen, RF and voice technology for quick and easy access to supplies
• Clinicians spend a small fraction of their time on supply chain matters
• In the event of stock shortages, clinicians can immediately locate equivalent products anywhere on the floor or in another building

Maximizing Cash Flow

• Improves cash-to-cash cycle
• Improves inventory turns and accuracy
• Reduces overall level of inventory
• Provides information for item usage and associated data tracking for patient billing and forecasting
• Reduces waste — no stockpiling, no overbuying or expired products
• Reduces costs associated with emergency reorder, shipping, and the high cost of low-volume ordering due to emergencies
• Uses less cash — less inventory = less cash tied up