Consumable Inventory & the Medical Field

Medical practices are for-profit businesses. Yet they rarely run like one. Medical professionals take an oath to help their patients no matter what. This focus on patient care pulls them away from running the business side. Messy medical inventory can delay patient care. In healthcare, every second counts. Medical providers often overlook inventory management, especially consumable inventory. Changing regulations, patient relations, labor shortages, and fluctuating supply costs understandably take precedent. A medical inventory system can feel overwhelming to the average doctor, nurse, or clinician. After all, they did not train to set up and monitor business software.

Many business owners believe they save time and money by not learning new software. They think learning a medical or hospital inventory system will take too much time. They fear it will hurt patient care and pull focus from other work. This thinking causes difficulties in increasing the number of inventory items proportionately. 

Also, medical and hospital inventory is far from a standard business model. Government agencies tightly regulate much of the stock in medical businesses. On top of that, perishable, condition-specific, and consumable items all need special handling. You cannot ignore the need for inventory software forever. Eventually, it will be too much to track.

Medical Inventory Management & Consumable Inventory

Medical inventory management software (IMS) needs more features to handle these different types of stock. The most sophisticated IMS has “consumable inventory” as a feature. This feature is vital because consumable inventory is a special type. How you use it affects the business in unique ways.

What is consumable medical inventory? According to Clinicaloncology.com “Consumables include gloves, gowns, masks, syringes, needles, sutures, staples, IV tubing, catheters, and adhesives for wound dressing, in addition to other tools needed by doctors and nurses to provide care.” Consumable inventory’s unique nature is that there is no reusing it once used or consumed. One and done, as some would say. That is the key difference between consumable inventory and all other types.

Consumables get used up fast, so they can take a large share of the total budget. The cost goes beyond the purchase price. Using each item also carries operating costs. COVID brought new rules for personal protective equipment. That made consumables an even bigger part of the operating budget.

female pharmacy worker manually checking her consumable inventory and comparing numbers manually with a medical inventory management system

Getting a Handle on Consumable Inventory

Understanding and controlling consumable inventory offers a host of benefits:

  • By tracking usage rates and trends, companies see which items get used most, when, how, and by whom.
  • Watching for both high and low stock levels helps companies make smart purchase decisions.
  • Once you understand your supply chain, you can automate purchases and deliveries quickly.
  • Helps with financial management, since consumables can drain revenue.

In the end, you need medical inventory software to control consumable inventory. There are too many variables, items, and ongoing calculations for pen and paper. Choosing software can feel overwhelming. There are many inventory, supply chain, warehouse, and enterprise resource planning (ERP) options. Choosing gets easier once you know what to look for.

Medical Inventory Management vs. Enterprise Resource Planning System

Your medical inventory software should do more than show stock levels. Often inventory management systems are just that, used for managing inventory. Some software builds inventory management into a larger system. These are called enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Medical ERP systems work like typical ERP systems. They add features that meet the medical industry’s needs.

Medical ERP systems connect with modules for accounting, finance, purchasing, and more. Together they give you a complete view of the business. When all modules share data, we call it a fully integrated ERP system. It can manage every part of the business. Be warned. Many ERP systems cannot separate consumable inventory from regular stock, let alone count it. A strong inventory module inside an ERP helps medical business owners spend less time gathering data. They get more time with patients.

Automation and Reporting

Also look for automation and reporting tools. Automation handles repetitive tasks for you. Examples include monthly purchase orders, appointment reminders, and scheduled deliveries. Reports create data. Data is king in business, and medicine is no different. Here the goal is less about beating competitors. It is more about understanding how the business runs. Any hospital administrator will tell you: knowing how money moves inside a facility matters as much as raising it.

medical management team reviewing reports

The Kechie Difference

Medical inventory management systems are suitable for small businesses with no expansion plans. But for businesses that need advanced tools, a fully integrated ERP system is the best answer. My Office Apps are the creators of Kechie ERP, a cloud-based, fully integrated solution configurable to the medical industry’s needs.

Kechie includes all these features out of the box. Medical businesses can: 

  • Monitor and control all inventory types, with advanced consumption functionality
  • Streamline their supply chain
  • Automate tasks
  • Provide comprehensive reports from the hundreds available
  • Improve overall efficiency and quality of the business operations

My Office Apps is a company of dedicated professionals who use their expertise to make the process of implementing an ERP as painless and straightforward as possible. Contact us today to learn more about My Office Apps solutions for the medical industry, or schedule a demo to see first-hand what we can do for you and your business.