Category: IDS

Why Inventory Management is Critical to Your Business

Posted on by John Van Horn

It used to be that the most an office employee could reasonably pilfer would be a few staplers and reams of paper. Maybe a really nice fountain pen. Now, with the influx of high tech gadgetry and peripherals required in nearly every professional setting, the danger of such supplies being stolen has become a serious financial consideration. iVendTech’s inventory management vending machines provide a simple way to stock, track, and account for any manner of office supplies.

The old school technique of keeping one open supply closet with all the requisite tools has disappeared. There is a need to trace each item used–particularly the expensive gadgets–and that requires a new method. Locked closets with a dedicated employee ‘gatekeeper’ only slow down valuable employees with paperwork and bureaucracy.  Using a customized iVendTech system will not only increase employee productivity, but it will also decrease overhead.

Every iVendTech and IDS automated office supply dispensing machine comes with online real-time tracking, so management can see how often and how many of each item is actually used. That data can then be used for office supply management in order to keep only the stock necessary, whether it’s a specialized tool or merely coffee supplies.

Accepting shrinkage and lost productivity as part of doing business is a thing of the past. Modern solutions, like iVendTech’s inventory management system, will both decrease costs and increase employee efficiency. Visit our website today to learn how we can customize a vending machine for your business needs!

Scrubs: Streetwear or Not?

Posted on by John Van Horn

When the public brings to mind the image of a medical professional, they have one of two outfits in mind: either a white lab coat or scrubs, usually blue ones. But when a medical professional is out of the hospital or lab, what are the implications of wearing the same apparel? Is it dangerous to wear scrubs outside and, if so, to whom?

Wearing a white lab coat can signal that the wearer is a scientist, doctor, a pharmacist, or many other health professions – even certain educators. Scrubs are believed to signal that the wearer is in a job where he or she could encounter hazardous biological material, requiring disposable or easily replaceable attire. However, scrubs are often worn in professions where no biological material is handled, such as medical technicians, x-ray operators, dental and veterinary assistants, massage therapists, some secretaries in medical settings, physical and occupational therapists, and many others.

The two primary dangers of wearing scrubs outdoors of the requisite work environment are contamination and perception.  When someone wears scrubs outside of a hospital setting, they may unwittingly be perceived as competent to handle emergency medical situations, simply due to their garb.  

Since the media often portrays surgeons as wearing only scrubs–rather than the medically appropriate gowns and guards–there is a concern that those wearing scrubs could either be carrying contagions or be picking up contaminants that will then be brought into sensitive medical settings. Both situations are highly unlikely to be accurate.

The real reasons for wearing scrubs outside of professional settings are as varied as the wearers. Some may wear their scrubs out to impress strangers; others find them comfortable and convenient coverings, dispensed from a vending machine on site, like ScrubTrak. Many hospitals are now discouraging their employees from wearing scrubs outside the workplace, but exceptions persist, such as when a doctor’s own clothing has been impaired in some way. Ultimately, the practice of using scrubs as streetwear isn’t particularly dangerous, and is more of a personal preference.

The best way to get clean, fresh, correctly-sized scrubs, anytime? ScrubTrak, the easiest way to dispense scrubs, anywhere.

How UCapIt Can Help EMS Providers Save Money

Posted on by John Van Horn

Today more than ever hospitals, EMS providers and other healthcare organizations are challenged to provide a higher quality of patient care while reducing operating costs and facing increased regulatory requirements and patient volume. UCapIt provides an innovative, yet simple, solution to a persistent problem. Through cloud-based technology and an intuitive, easy to use software platform, UCapIt and IDS increases employee productivity and provides management with real-time analytics from their EMS supply tracking vending machines in order to make data-driven executive-level decisions.

UCapIt and IDS provides medical inventory tracking by allowing administrators to set limits on the number of items a user may take out at a time. Once the user hits that limit the user must return an item(s) before access is returned. Restrictions on usage can be adjusted on a departmental level by authorized administrators and multiple alert options are available via e-mail to multiple individuals based upon client established criteria. Reports include, but are not limited to:

  • Usage Summary
  • Inventory Consumption
  • Comparative Usage by Time
  • Transactions
  • Restock Summary
  • Par Optimization
  • Item Turnover Rate
  • Inventory Totals
  • Discrepancy Report

Here is a direct quote from Capt Beth Hines of Jacksonville NC (Onlow County EMS) about our drug expiration tracking feature:

“The report tells me what I need to know, how many are expiring, where they are located and the name of the medication. I really like that I can run the report for 90 or more days because I order replacement medications 3-4 months in advance, plus my regular stock… so I know I won’t run out. Now instead of having to do a count by hand at the end of the month or so I check them in when I receive them and simply run the reports I need.”

The Controlled Access Pharmacy (CAP) allows many medical professionals, including EMS, Pharmaceutical, Veterinary the ability to restock their units 24/7 and have real-time usage and inventory tracking. The CAP can check multiple forms of ID and will prompt for station or dispatch specific data.

All withdrawals are cataloged, time stamped and regulated by tech clearance/training level. A unique solution to today’s challenge of controlling access, tracking inventory and dispensing of products according to access protocol.

ScrubTrak Pro Tips: Keeping your Scrubs Sanitary

Posted on by John Van Horn

Being knowledgeable about the sanitation of your scrubs, and taking preventative measures to keep scrubs clean is key to avoiding the spread of harmful bacteria and viruses.

In a study conducted by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) stated more than 60% of uniforms worn by nurses and doctors who work in hospitals tested positive for dangerous bacteria.

To combat pesky bacteria, we’ve gathered a few scrub cleaning pro tips that will help keep these germs at bay:

Store your scrubs properly.

  • When you’re leaving the doctor’s office or hospital, take a moment to change into your normal attire. Remove your scrubs and place them in a sealable plastic bag, a large ziplock bag that can be reused is the way to go. This prevents people in your commute home from being exposed to the bacteria that is hanging out on your scrubs.

Consider getting a ScrubTrak dispenser for your medical facility.

  • Hospital grade laundering services provides a thorough, cleaning process that cannot be replicated in home washing machines and ensures scrubs are rid of infectious germs. Through automating the process for receiving and returning scrubs, ScrubTrak assists hospitals in complying with AORN’s recommendation for surgical attire to be laundered by a healthcare laundry facility to avoid the spread of infectious bacteria on scrubs of medical personnel who have patient interaction. By offering dispensing and return units for scrubs, and monitoring compliance through our real-time software system, hospital administrators can confidently comply with AORN. In addition, ScrubTrak’s return units allow for convenient and safe scrub pick-up by laundering staff.

Wash after every wear.

  • Although your scrubs may seem clean, perhaps you only worked a 4 hour shift; regardless, your scrubs need to be washed with hot water after every single wear. It is not a matter of personal hygiene, rather about the prevention of nasty bacteria and viruses.

For hospital and medical facility managers, we highly recommend that you check out the ScrubTrak site and features.

iVendTech – How a Vending Machine In Your Office Can Benefit Business Travelers

Posted on by John Van Horn

IDS Office Supply System is the answer to a simple desire of many businesses: We want to vend & track supplies for our employees. It proves there are no limits to intelligent dispensing. Now everything from ballpoint pens to keyboards can be dispensed from this versatile machine.

An IDS office supply vending machine offers many benefits like the ability to place products where they are needed 24/7 while reducing or in some cases eliminating office supply cabinets and drawers. Everything is secure and trackable letting you concentrate on your core business and not on keeping track of your supplies.

An employee arrives at an office that is not their home office and is in need of IT peripherals to accomplish their work. Examples might be a laptop power supply or security dongle. An on-demand electronics vending machine would allow the user to procure the item quickly.

An Employee can go to the machine and input their employee ID or swipe their ID card at the machine to initiate a dispensing session. The machine then sends ID/PIN to the server for authentication and restriction information is retrieved from the database (restriction information is based on departmental limits or other criteria as desired). If the employee is validated the dispensing session continues, otherwise the dispensing session terminates.

Tracking of products is easy. Transaction information is sent to the database including: time and date, account, site, machine, product(s) dispensed, and employee name or ID.

For office supplies and IT management we highly recommend that you check out the iVendTech site and features.

How ScrubTrak Can Help With Compliance and Infection Prevention in Medical Facilities

Posted on by John Van Horn

ScrubTrak™ is a breakthrough in scrub dispensing technology. It helps medical facilities manage their scrub supply more efficiently—reducing inventory shrinkage and increasing the bottom line. And it ensures doctors, nurses and techs always have clean medical scrubs available.

This simple, intuitive system eliminates hoarding, shortages and unauthorized use. We estimate that ScrubTrak™ can reduce inventory shrinkage by 90%.

Contaminated linen, including scrubs and coats, have been identified as a source of large numbers of pathogenic microorganisms. ScrubTrak offers infection prevention solutions by helping control this risk in healthcare organizations by providing return units in key locations throughout the campus. Having multiple return unit locations ensures that employees do not have to travel far distances in contaminated uniforms.

Hospital grade laundering services provides a thorough, cleaning process that cannot be replicated in home washing machines and ensures clean medical scrubs that are rid of infectious germs. Through automating the process for receiving and returning scrubs, ScrubTrak assists hospitals in complying with AORN’s recommendation for surgical attire to be laundered by a healthcare laundry facility to avoid the spread of infectious bacteria on scrubs of medical personnel who have patient interaction. By offering dispensing and return units for scrubs, and monitoring compliance through our real-time software system, hospital administrators can confidently comply with AORN. In addition, ScrubTrak’s return units allow for convenient and safe scrub pick-up by laundering staff.

For hospital and medical facility managers, we highly recommend that you check out the ScrubTrak site and features.

UCapIt – The Next Level of Supply Management for Medical Settings

Posted on by John Van Horn

IDS continues to be at the forefront of innovative vending machine solutions for professionals in every field with their UCapIt series of health care product machines. With both refrigerated and non-refrigerated options, the Cap3, Cap5, and locker-style models all offer a better way to dispense both pharmaceutical and emergency medical service (EMS) items as needed.

What are the benefits of the intelligent UCapIt system in a hospital setting?

Unlike simplistic machines that simply pop open drawers when the correct codes are entered, UCapIt medical supply vending can handle a vast array of different items, from medication to EMS supplies, from oxygen to backboards.

The technology allows for a variety of access options, from traditional pin numbers to proximity card readers to biometric scanning of fingerprints, or combinations. Theft and shrinkage become problems of the past when UCapIt is onsite to track who accessed what stock and when. Storeroom inventory accountability is always working to ensure that older items are used first and that any low stock levels are ordered promptly, all through customized automation.

Managing the UCapIt system is simple, and you can receive updates and information by email, or even text message, which is perfect for medical professionals on the go. Customized reports offer medical supply management by tracking inventory, usage, and even the well-being of the machine itself through self-diagnostic reports.

With the various sizes of UCapIt machines, it is easy and convenient to place a few throughout the medical area or hospital, which can save valuable time in accessing needed items. Saving time in a hospital often equates to lives saved and, at the very least, cost saving, as employees spend less time using the newer streamlined system.

By saving time and money, improving access to needed supplies, and allowing for real-time monitoring and reordering, the UCapIt system isn’t simply a desirable addition to any healthcare setting; it is a modern necessity.

How IDS Helps You Create Custom Vending Machines

Posted on by John Van Horn

When you think of a vending machine, you may be picturing a large, boxy hulk hidden away by an elevator under a fluorescent light, temperamentally dispensing pre-packaged items of indeterminate age and nutrition. That image, however, is a fallacy, an imaginary scene. What if you could create a vending machine, both in terms of aesthetics and function? Now you can create your own vending machine solutions to meet the distinct needs of your area.

At Intelligent Dispensing Solutions (IDS), we specialize in assisting our clients in designing a unique vending experience, customized to their needs and specifications. All it takes is an idea. Do you have a dream of a machine that dispenses office supplies within a library? Penn State now offers a machine with all the non-edible needs any college student could ask for. What if you could buy medical scrubs from a vending machine in a hospital, reducing shortages and improving inventory control? Scrubtrak had an inspiration and made it a reality.

Once you have an idea of the type of product you want to be dispensed, our software and engineering teams begin to consider the best way to supply, plan, organize, interact with, and dispense or sell your unique items. We use state of the art technologies to offer paid, cash free, and no-cost choices, as well as individual design elements, based on your specifications.

After you’ve approved the plan, we move into the fabrication phase. We build on site, using modern systems and over 70 years of experience. None of our designs are sent overseas for production and all phases of the build are done in-house, assuring not only the security of your idea, but also the quality.  Finally, through our global support network and total partnership program, your machine is installed and brought online. Our commitment to your complete satisfaction doesn’t end at launch; we remain involved through service and ongoing improvements and upgrades as the industry advances.

If you bring us a scheme, a dream, or a vision, we will bring it to life for you with a custom vending machine from IDS.

Vending Machine For Office Supplies Opened in a Library

Posted on by John Van Horn

There are few things more irritating than needing something to write with and not having it. Whether you’re an office worker getting ready for that big presentation or a student getting ready to take that test, nothing quite matches the sinking feeling in your stomach when you reach for your trusty pen and can’t find it. If certain companies have their way, however, this is one problem that society will never have to face again. A number of IT office supply vending machine options have recently made their way into the world and are yielding incredibly positive results.

The Penn State Bookstore

Seeing a vending machine on a college campus is certainly nothing new. College students have been using them for quick snacks in between classes for decades. However, Penn State University recently took a bold step to make sure that students didn’t just have access to all the salty and sweet snacks they want, but also to all of the office supplies they could ever need.

Penn State University installed two such vending machines on its campus that are packed with the types of necessities that you CAN’T eat. These library vending machines are filled with notebooks, headphones, calculators, pens and other miscellaneous office supplies, taking “convenience” to a whole new level.

From the student’s perspective, the benefits are clear. If they get to the library and realize they forgot their notebook, they don’t have to rush back to their dorm – they can just buy a new one. From the University’s perspective, they’ve also unlocked a brand new revenue stream at the same time. It’s the type of situation where everyone wins.

iVendTech | A New Versatile Approach to Office & IT Supply Asset Management

iVendTech is just one example of an office and IT supply solutions provider that is paving the way in this regard, taking the concept of the vending machine for libraries to an incredible new level. Not only do iVendTech’s solutions help to provide all of the important supplies people need at a moment’s notice, but they also offer additional benefits by way of features like will-call lockers, real-time reporting, inventory management and control capabilities and more. All transactions from the notebook vending machine are recorded, allowing people to experience a more deeper level of insight into their inventory control than ever before. These real-time analytics can also help them make more informed purchasing decisions based on buying patterns, trends and more.

These are just a few of the reasons why smart supply vending machines for offices and other contexts are so great. They take the natural benefits of the vending machine to the next level by offering on-demand access to the tools students, business professionals and others need when they need them the most. This is just another in a long line of positive steps that vending machines have taken towards becoming important fixtures in all of our lives in recent years.

Vending Solutions in Public Premises

Posted on by John Van Horn

If you happened to walk by a vending machine in a public place, you probably wouldn’t bat an eye. However, if you took a closer look inside the contents of THESE University and Public vending machines, you just may stop for a closer look. Make no mistake: vending machines house a lot more than just soft drinks and potato chips these days, as these particular solutions go a long way towards proving.

  1. Shippensburg University

Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania recently made headlines when it outfitted its campus with a vending machine stocked entirely with health-related items. Located within the campus’ student health center, this innovative dispenser caused a great deal of controversy when the university announced it would offer Plan B, also commonly referred to as “the morning-after pill.”

  1. Sacramento California

Nothing is worse than needing a roll of duct tape and not having it, but thanks to one dedicated vending machine manufacturer employees of many Sacramento government agencies will never have to worry about this again. Many vending machines have been deployed throughout the area that are stocked with industrial equipment like duct tape, rubber gloves and more.

  1. The University of Florida

Students at the University of Florida will never find themselves without a notebook, pencil or other important item in the near future. The University of Florida recently installed office vending machine options in their libraries that sell school supplies like note cards, blue books, pens, pencils and beyond.

Benefits of Vending Machines for Hospitals

The key takeaway from these vending machines is that the machines themselves can be highly customized to fit the environment they’re placed in. Take a scrub vending machine, for example. ScrubTrak is one such option that not only allows medical professionals quick access to scrubs and other important items they need to do their jobs, but it also offers an unparalleled level of functionality to businesses. ScrubTrak allows a vending machine to be stocked with multiple sizes of items, can track both purchase and returns for detailed reporting, offers insight into buying patterns to be used for more informed purchasing decisions in the future.

Benefits of Vending Machines for Office Employees and Management

 

These benefits don’t just stop at universities and hospitals, however – thanks to companies like iVendTech, office and IT employees can also get in on the action. iVendTech offers a wide range of office vending machine solutions designed to make sure employees always have access to the important office supplies they need when they need them the most. These machines also come with will-call lockers, real-time reporting, advanced inventory management and control capabilities and more.

One thing is for sure – the days of vending machines being “just” a way to get a quick snack in during the day are long gone. With innovative dispensers offering an incredible level of customization based on the environment they find themselves in, they’re taking a bold step in the direction of becoming an integral fixture in all of our lives once again.

For hospital and medical facility managers, we highly recommend that you check out the ScrubTrak site and features.

For office supplies and IT management we highly recommend that you check out the iVendTech site and features.