My top tip for 2015 inventory management is to keep things simple. Overanalyzing and trying to do too much, all at once, will lead to an unsuccessful inventory venture and a frustrated team. Speaking of team, the most successful way to manage inventory in your practice is to take the team approach. By organizing a group of people who work together to maintain your practice’s optimal levels of drugs and medical supplies, you are less likely to get off-track with inventory management over the course of the year.
Set attainable goals that can be measured for success. Many of us say that we want to lose weight, get healthy etc. for the New Year. At the end of the year you look back and think “was I successful at this resolution?” If you instead set a measurable goal of “I want to lose 25 pounds by the end of the year”, you can clearly determine if you were successful at reaching your resolution. Use this approach when setting your inventory management goals for 2015.
Full inventory counts are a great goal to set for a team but this is often a goal not accomplished because of our busy schedules. Instead, set a goal to count and adjust all of your antibiotics, NSAIDs and steroids by the end of January or February. Break this out into weekly goals for the team to help you count. You will be more successful and less overwhelmed making strides in your overall goals to work on inventory management. Once you have accomplished these counts you can move on to other classifications in your hospital.
Schedule Time For Inventory Management
Set time in your schedule once a week to focus on inventory. Plan out what you want to accomplish during this time so you stay on track. Let the rest of the team know that you are not available during this time unless it is an emergency so you can focus on your tasks. Try not to take calls or check email during this time so you are completely focused. Interruptions cause breaks in your concentration and you will lose valuable inventory time.
An easy way to get started on your budget is to determine a percent of your revenue that you want to target for inventory spending, then multiply that percent by your total sales from the previous week. Let’s say my inventory budget is set at 17% and I made $45,000 the previous week in sales. I would have $6,750 dollars to spend this week.
If others are helping you order, post the weekly budget in a central location and when they make purchases they can write down their totals on the sheet. If you have a team that likes to do things in a paperless fashion you can keep a weekly budget in a shared folder on your desktop, dropbox, or through email. Once your team gets use to using a simple budget you can start breaking down your spending into categories.
Improve inventory management in 2015 by planning goals and scheduling focused time to achieve those goals. Remember to follow a budget and check-in frequently to be sure you’re hitting your budgetary goals. If you need assistance in building out your inventory plan, contact us for ways in which we can help!