During these challenging times, Ambulatory Surgery Centers and Hospital Outpatient Surgery Centers are trying to improve efficiencies and make cost savings. ASCs and HOSCs offering same-day surgery can learn the tricks that boost performance in a competitive market. It’s time to discover the medical inventory management hacks that can lead to big wins.
Discover the three inventory management hacks that will boost your ambulatory center’s performance.
1. Medical Inventory Management in Surgical Centers
Get the basics right: The first step to improving inventory control in surgery centers is to get the basics right. The foundation that holds up the whole medical inventory supply chain is VISIBILITY.
Procedure rooms are known to be the toughest place in any healthcare setting to track medical inventory, with a massive 48% of products used going uncaptured. The unfortunate impact of uncaptured items is their omission from the billing and reimbursement processes, plus they obscure true inventory levels.
Unfortunately, barcode systems often fail to log items immediately. There may be multiple barcodes on packaging, the SKU may not match the item master, or there may be a batch of drop-downs to select from. All of these issues cause confusion, delays, and frustration when the nurse wants to focus on the patient and clinical team, not admin.
Surgical inventory management can be a long and complex task that distracts nurses from patient care.
It’s clear that to run efficiently and profitably, healthcare organizations, such as same-day surgery centers, need to encourage full data capture in their procedure rooms. The only way to make this happen is for their POU systems to be quick and easy for nurses to use.
2. Improved Recall and Expiry Management in Surgery Centers
Manage Risks: Did you know that medical supplies inventory management is not just an administrative process; it is also a risk management process?
Many medical consumables and narcotics have short expiry dates, so it is crucial to manage this medical inventory carefully. Effective control of expired products prevents wastage, protects patient welfare, and also ensures full compliance by nurses and the organization. Getting recall and expiry management wrong can be tragic and expensive.
Nurses and surgeons are the last line of defense when it comes to checking products for recall and expiry issues prior to usage. They deserve a layer of protection, a system that flags unsuitable products before they are used at the point of care.
Recalls are another related issue. No one wants to use a recalled product mistakenly, but it can and does happen. When a recall occurs, you want to be able to quickly identify all patients affected.
Getting medical supply chain processes right, so that restock levels are based on actual need, is a known way to reduce surplus stock. Leaner procurement that prevents too many supplies sitting in storerooms makes stock control much easier to manage. But even if your same-day surgery center practices data-driven procurement and does not carry surplus stock, a final layer of protection at the point of care is the best safeguard for everyone.
3. Boost Income with Accurate Procedure Room Charge Capture
Capture your data: Inventory management in surgical centers is a key workflow, with medical supplies being one of the highest organizational costs. However, to maximize reimbursement, systems must be in place to accurately capture chargeable items.
Understanding the issues does not necessarily translate into effective action, with many healthcare organizations losing millions of dollars through under capture of their item utilization.
Surgery outpatient facilities are increasingly seeking automated, user-friendly systems that offer full interoperability with their EHR, ERM, and MMIS systems. Providing real-time visibility into medical supplies for the surgery center and its suppliers simplifies and streamlines procurement.
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Three Hacks – One Solution
Making a significant impact doesn’t necessarily require a complete system change. You don’t need to revamp your whole inventory management system; you need to consider an additional tool that is effective in the frantic surgical setting.
Discover how Snap & Go seamlessly integrates within your existing systems and workflows to deliver comprehensive visibility and data capture in ambulatory care procedure rooms.
At IDENTI, we produce a range of smart medical data sensing products, specially designed to work in the ambulatory healthcare setting. We help ambulatory surgery centers and hospital outpatient surgery centers to reduce supply chain admin, lower inventory waste, and optimize revenue.
