How Does Real Time Inventory Management Help In Pharmaceutical Dispensing

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This post is for all organizations and stakeholders that deal with medical services and medicine inventory. IDS has end-to-end medical supplies storage and management solutions for emergency response teams, hospitals, universities, and more. Please check out what our customers have to say here.

The factors that impact medical supplies dispensing are related to the following stakeholders,

  1. Medical service providers: from first responders to medical professionals on the roster, medical supplies must be accessible quickly and only to the appropriate professional. 
  2. Service users and consumers: the supplies need to be available in pristine condition to the end-user.
  3. Organizations and institutions: entities that deploy storage and management dispensing solutions need help with their expense optimization.

Points To Watch Out For In A Medical Supply Dispensing Solution

The principal objective of a pharmaceutical dispensing solution is ensuring optimum access to medicine and medical resources while eliminating wastage and thereby optimizing procurement. The following aspects are critical in ensuring a successful pharmaceutical inventory management solution:

  1. Technology and features: there are numerous methods for tracking the supply’s flow and status. From embedded sensors to cellular internet, stakeholders need to choose the appropriate machine that ticks all the boxes.
  2. Storage and procurement: medical resources come with a host of regulatory compliances to meet, and they differ based on the governmental agency or entity. The ideal solution needs to be flexible enough to factor in multiple considerations while assisting strict compliance.
  3. Operations and reporting: in medical resources dispensing a penny saved is a penny better spent in saving more lives. The ideal dispensing solution needs to be equipped to reduce wastage and procurement expenses.
  4. Maintenance: Medical domain needs tried and tested solutions that are reliable over long periods.

Technology & Features: 

  1. 3rd Party Tool Integration: Inventory management data helps departments like admin, HR, finance, operations, etc. IDS’s solution integrates with a wide range of 3rd party systems and software.
  2. Credentials Based Access: Credentials capture improves accountability and resource utilization. IDS solutions offer a host of credential vetting tools like magnetic cards, mobile-based barcode scanners, etc, including biometrics-based access. Biometrics are more difficult to manipulate and can be carried over from the previous machines.
  3. Stakeholder Communication:  IDS UCapIt helps automate transactional and usage-based communication based on pre-determined and ad-hoc triggers to the appropriate stakeholders.

B. Storage & Procurement: 

  1. Supply Room: Multiple statutory regulations and compliance requirements must be met when storing and dispensing pharmaceuticals and medical supplies. With IDS dispensing solutions, the entire supply room is accessible at the click of a button. This is especially beneficial for audits, risk reduction, and product expiration management.
  2. Custom Notifications/Alerts For Critical Resources: Some SKUs need more attention than others. These could be anything from scrubs to controlled medication. IDS  solutions come equipped with full data tracking and insights capture capabilities to design custom alerts through notifications and actions like procurement requests.

C. Operations & Reporting

  1. Automated Returns Management: returns are a pain, and the ideal dispensing solution would make it pain-free. Like how the Virtual Tracker updates stock levels after returns. 
  2. Improved Inventory Workflows: Efficiency is all about the workflows that determine how the inventory flows. UCapIt’s simple and effective workflows optimize how inventory is distributed and made accessible. 
  3. Scheduled Maintenance of Dispensed Assets & Resources: Our solutions help in improving asset life and quality by helping in their timely recalibration, repairs, or maintenance during check-in.
  4. Enhanced Auditing: Reconciling stock records to actuals is a breeze with Virtual Tracker. Our easy-to-use interfaces, including mobile-based bar code scanners, ensure stocks = actuals.
  5. Lot Tracking: supply tracking from procurement to dispensing and future procurements. Chain of custody

D. Maintenance

  1. Optimizing Efficiency: Solutions need to be monitored and maintained to ensure they are able to give full value for their investment. Using iQ Technology helps understand how the deployed solution is working for you. 
  2. Optimizing Efficiency: Solutions need to be monitored and maintained to ensure they are able to give full value for their investment. Using iQ Technology helps understand how the deployed solution is working for you. 

The Benefits Of Using A Single-Source Inventory Management Solution

In addition to the points covered above, IDS’s single-source all-in-one solutions pack great adaptability. For instance, we pack the following,

  1. Custom Checklist: The ability to build digital checklists for anything. Could be workflows, notifications, or inventory tracking. 
  2. API / Pre-Authorization: The backend of the software is secure but comes with the ability to connect with other business processes. Ensuring inventory which is a critical aspect of the organization does not end up being a silo.
  3. Customizable Locker Dispensing: Our physical lockers and hardware themselves are versatile. Customizable as single, standalone machines or satellites connected to a dispenser or smart locker.

With iQ Technology, you get all the features, values, and benefits of an ideal dispensing solution for your medical service delivery requirements. A snapshot of what our solutions are capable of includes, single and multiple item dispense, asset and resource check-in/check-out, returns management, custom rule setting workflows like loan periods, self-service automated order pick-up/will-call, etc., and much more under a single login for a unified view on supply requests.

Click here to know more about how and what iQ Technology could do for your pharmaceutical real-time inventory management and storage.