INTRODUCTION-
Medical equipment are tools and materials that primarily aid in the diagnosis, treatment or nursing of medical conditions. They range from – medical supplies like wheelchairs, assistive furniture, scooters, walking aids, diabetic medical supplies, incontinence materials, urological materials, nursing materials, orthopedic, skin care, topicals, respiratory materials, life support equipment, diagnostic equipment,medical monitors, medical lab equipment, therapeutic equipment, the rapeutic medical supplies, medications, vaccines, and much more.
These myriad of medical supplies are the backbone of every hospital, clinic, health center and pharmacy, a leading medical supplies NJ company, offers a wide range of these products at competitive prices and at the best value for your money.
It is often imperative for organizations to devise efficient means and methods of organizing these materials because a poor inventory and organization can lead to more problems than positive results in the long run.
TIPS FOR MANAGING MEDICAL SUPPLIES
Proper methods for managing medical supplies involve a combination of reducing overall waste and helping organizations to keep stock so as to have a good knowledge of future purchasing decisions which in turn reduces unnecessary costs.
1.Ensure that your organization staff have a good knowledge of medical supplies. The leading cause of wastage in the medical realm is ignorance. Some items have stringent regulations that guard their efficacy and sterility. Poor knowledge about proper handling of such items leads to wastage. Make sure that all personnel have a satisfactory understanding of the different products, their optimum storage conditions and how to minimize wastage and damage to the products. For example, diabetic medical supplies can be sensitive and require a specialized knowledge about their care and storage.
2.Properly label the supplies in your stock. All the available items should be appropriately labeled for ease of identification, location and use. In an ER for example, there would be numerous cases of emergencies which build pressure and havoc. A well labelled and organized stock room would help to contribute to the effectiveness of the medical process. Also worthy of note is that all labels should be multilingual so that there are no limitations to people who have language barriers.
3.All supplies should be with in reach from each other. This promotes accessibility, consistency and unnecessary confusions about stock. It also reduces the time travelled in the event of emergencies and contributes to the overall effectiveness of the practice.
4.Have consistency in storage location. Ensure that the medical supplies are kept in the same place regularly and indefinitely (unless for some urgent reason). Mentally, people attribute fixed locations to certain materials and so constantly changing the storage locations of the materials can cause havoc and confusion in the event that the supplies are urgently needed and this could be detrimental to both the patients and the practitioner.
5.Practice proper storage guide lines for supplies. You should always consider the fact that different products have different requirements for storage based on temperature, light intensity, air levels, etc. Paying close attention to the different specific requirements and utilizing durable storage containers and shelving’s would help to keep supplies safe and contribute to ease of access.
6.Digital inventory system and other advanced software. This is one of the easiest and fastest ways to track medical supplies, keep stock and access the supplies. These systems are usually easy to use and come equipped with bar code scanners that automatically and electronically take a majority of burden off your hands. For instance, the software could be equipped with the capability of recognizing and tracking over 200 bar codes that are representative of different medical supplies within a company.
7.Schedule fixed dates for data entry reconciliation. You should take the time to at least, monthly check through and reconcile and mismatching’s in data entry in the inventory system.This would help to prevent bigger problems in the future.
8.Manually confirm all purchase and order invoices. It is more economical to cross check the deliveries against the order form and ensure that there are no errors or miscounts. Errors might seem irrelevant but can pose serious consequences for patients and customers in the long term.
9.Professional inventory control companies are available to complete intense stock taking procedures, taking the stress and confusion out of the picture and giving you time to focus on other things.
10.Larger medical supplies like wheelchairs and supportive furniture that would take up a lot of space in large quantities and would be hard to swiftly maneuver need not be necessarily present in the complete numbers at the companies. Such items are usually ordered and not required for emergencies so, only a few amount of the equipment need be present at the physical locations to conserve space and organization.
Note that these tips do not only apply to medical supplies in NJ (although they are the best quality) but are all encompassing.
