Needles, Vials And Pills, Oh My! How Inventory Services Helps You Keep Track Of Everything In Your Med Supply Closets

Med supply closets on each floor and each wing of a hospital contain dozens of pills, medications, vials of injectable medicines, needles and a wide array of other supplies. Although these closets are regularly stocked with more supplies, you may be surprised to learn that not all of your hospital staff checks and rechecks the med closet as they should. This leads to theft of prescription medication and abuse of medications by your staff right under your administrative nose. To get ahead of these potential problems, you may want to hire professional inventory services. Here is how these businesses help you keep track of everything in your med closets.

Med Logs and Supply Sign-outs to Track Supply Use and Expenses

For starters, the inventory company will set up a supply sign-out sheet. Anytime your staff needs a box of exam gloves or a wound irrigation kit, they have to sign it out and use their signature or initials to do it. This helps the inventory company and you keep better track of where all of the supplies are going and why the monthly expenses for certain supplies are so high.

Weekly Inventory

To keep ahead of any possible medicine thefts or employee medical supply thefts, the inventory company can also send a team to perform weekly inventory of your med supply closets. Every pill, vial, enema, etc., is counted, and then compared against the records of the previous week as well as against the medication administration and treatment charts. If there is a discrepancy, everything is counted again to verify the missing items. Then a report is written up that clearly shows what is missing from which med supply closets so that you know where to focus your time and energy.

Monthly Inventory or Semi-Monthly Inventory for Supply Fulfillment Needs

Another service frequently offered by an inventory company for hospitals, like Instant Inventory Service, is the monthly or semi-monthly inventory. This coincides with the dates and times that your hospital receives shipments of supplied that in turn are delivered and stored to each and every med supply closet. Instead of having your nurses do this job (and take them away from their floor and patient responsibilities) the inventory teams count, catalog and place medical supplies in the closets for you. As for medicines, a nurse on each wing or floor will have to work side-by-side with an inventory team member to assure the safety and proper logging of the medicines that are delivered to that specific med supply closet.