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Managing Inventory Effectively in Medical Device Procurement & Healthcare Management Efficiency!
- by Shital
- on August 9, 2024
Effective inventory management is crucial for medical device procurement for seamless and equal distribution for healthcare facilities. That could only ensure smooth operations and provide quality care to patients. Medical equipment accounts for a significant portion of healthcare costs for higher research & development purposes. So, optimising an efficient inventory management system is essential to address many complications faced within the present healthcare sector.
In hospitals where patients’ lives are at risk because of the shortage of life-saving medical equipment for patients’ safety, they need a well-stocked inventory management system to avoid interruptions in healthcare operations.
The healthcare industry has struggled with shortages of vaccines, surgical instrument shortages, and healthcare equipment supplies, which highlight the urgent need for a robust inventory management system to optimise the entire spectrum of medical device procurement.
To overcome these challenges, medical device supply institutions must prioritise having broad access to essential medical devices and equipment medical supply through a strategic bio-medical procurement strategy. This fundamental component aims to reduce costs, thus enhancing the patient’s safety and effectiveness of medical devices, and improving overall operational efficiency.
What is the Development of Bio-Medical Procurement of Medical Devices?
Biomedical procurement involves the process of selecting medical devices, evaluating, and ordering & receiving medical devices, supplies, and equipment from vendors or manufacturers to ensure optimal patient care and monitoring medical devices to meet the organisation’s requirements.
It also involves:
- Understanding sales terms and price negotiating
- Evaluating Regulatory compliance
- Ensuring smooth and timely delivery
- Streamlined medical devices and supplies inventory
- Seamless Procurement Management Process
What is the key role of an inventory management system?
For any organisation, an inventory management system plays a key role in optimising resource allocation for operational efficiency. By tracking, managing, evaluating, and presenting inventory status, and selling a company’s inventory, this system enables healthcare organisations to make informed decisions and streamline their processes effectively tradeoff managerial utility at the operational levels.
It helps to know the inventory status, how stocks are collected, and where to be resources utilised. All these can be accessed through the inventory management system. It effectively improves quality healthcare and ensures seamless operations in the healthcare industry.
Ongoing Trends in Healthcare Procurement!
The dynamic landscape of global healthcare procurement in recent years has led to an increased emphasis on robust growth potential, which has driven various trends and new best practices that transform the global healthcare procurement markets. Advanced technology adaptation in the healthcare system enables quick diagnosing practices to reduce hospital stays and complex medical interventions, dramatically reducing waiting time and false recalls of diseases.
Let’s find some key trends that are making waves in the healthcare procurement arena.
1..Technology Revolutionising in Medical Device Procurement:
One of the most significant trends in healthcare procurement is to leverage cutting-edge technology to enhance patient comfort. From quick diagnostics to automated procurement processes, technology is playing a big role in streamlining operations, reducing costs, and improving supplier management practices.
With improvements in automation and analytics tools, healthcare providers can facilitate procurement processes while providing precision and effectiveness.
2..Focus on Sustainability:
The healthcare sector is practising to turn over a new level of sustainability and social responsibility in medical device procurement methods. Healthcare providers are increasingly seeking partnerships with hospital equipment suppliers who demonstrate a firm commitment to ethical and sustainable practices.
By aligning with these trends in procurement practices, the industry is actively working towards reducing its carbon footprint, minimising waste, and encouraging fair labour practices. This trend sets the overall ethical standards in the healthcare supply chain.
What Is Medical Inventory Management?
Medical inventory plays an essential role in healthcare facilities as it contains medical supplies, medical equipment stocking, medication storage, and maintaining well-stocked other essential medical consumables. This is needed for patient care and hospital operational functions.
Unlike traditional inventory systems, modern medical inventory management focuses on addressing the unique challenges driven by the medical field of clinical workflows.
Timely access to medical device supplies, prevention of stock-outs or expired products, and efficient use of resources that set processes to check the available resources in medical inventory management.
Accuracy and availability of hospital supplies are important as they directly influence patient treatment outcomes and safety, organise treatment plans, and conduct efficient hospital operations within healthcare settings.
Healthcare providers must pay attention to inventory status to track usage patterns, predict demands, and simplify procurement processes effectively.
Thus, these advanced inventory management capabilities ensure real-time monitoring, efficient resource utilisation, and adherence to industry regulations, which eventually promote the quality of patient care and operational efficacy of healthcare institutions.
What are Successful Value-Based Procurement Practices in Healthcare Equipment Supplies in The UK Healthcare System?
There are different numbers of medical devices from NHS suppliers has to follow, that have been picked based on their effectiveness and abilities to cut excessive medical bills and improve patient outcomes.
If the arrangement for patients’ desired improvement is not achieved, if not registered according to the level of commitment, medical device suppliers may not be compensated.
This process aims to align NHS medical device suppliers towards prioritising patients’ care and their quality health outcomes.
Two common examples of successful healthcare procurement strategies include the implementation of the JIT (“Just-in-Time”) inventory management system and leveraging Group Purchasing Organisations (GPOs).
The Just-in-Time system uses real-time data analysis to monitor inventory level outlooks when needed and automate supply chain or inventory management. That leads to reduced wastage and improved efficiency.
On the other hand, GPOs enable healthcare organisations to work out cost savings through collective negotiations on procurement. This privileges the organisation to get discounted price benefits on high-quality products and equipment, thereby improving medical device procurement efficiency and healthcare equipment for patients at lower rates.
