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Do You Need an Inventory Management System?
Physicians tout the systems' financial advantages.
By Erin Murphy, Contributing Editor |
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Every dollar counts. As advances in drug treatments mean practices use more and more drugs to treat their patients, keeping track of those drugs becomes increasingly important, as does ensuring that the practice is reimbursed for their use. That's where inventory management systems are designed to help.
"There was a time when drugs were an afterthought for us. We used dilating drops and anesthetics, but their low prices meant there wasn't much incentive to track them," says Pravin Dugel, MD, of Retinal Consultants of Arizona in Phoenix. "This has changed completely. Today, costly drugs are a key part of our day-to-day practice. Their loss or misuse has an impact on our bottom line. Now it's very important to have an inventory management system to track drugs from receipt to reimbursement."
When drugs are delivered to a practice, the staff uses an inventory management system to generate a barcode for each unit. The barcode is scanned at every move in the practice, ending in the drug's use. Staff members can view the practice's inventory at a glance. They can also note in the system that a new drug order was placed or that an insurer has preapproved reimbursement for administering the drug to a specific patient.
At a time when efficiency is crucial and, more than ever, every dollar counts, an inventory management could benefit your practice.
Michael Tolentino, MD, practices at the Center for Retina and Macular Disease in Winter Haven, Fla. He points to several key goals his practice accomplishes with the help of an inventory system.
Minimize inventory and waste: Having a real-time inventory system allows us to minimize drug inventory, which in turn improves cash flow. It also tells us where a drug is and which hands have touched it from the day it enters the practice, even flagging vials that aren't accounted for. With each vial of every drug tracked from purchase to utilization, we have almost completely eliminated waste.
Get reimbursed and budget ahead: We want to use the drugs that are appropriate for our patients without fear of massive financial losses if insurers delay or challenge certain portions of payment. The inventory system allays those fears. The system enables us to acquire drugs preapproved as required by managed care. As a result, we've minimized potential write-offs and unnecessary out-of-pocket charges to our patients. It also makes cash flow predictable and allows us to forecast expenditures.
Smooth out the schedule: Our practice mission is to serve our patients, and the inventory management system honors that goal by helping us provide efficient care. When a patient is scheduled for an injection, we assign that patient a specific vial for injection, so we know we'll have the appropriate drug for the patient when we need it. And because the inventory system is linked to our electronic health record (EHR) system, the EHR tells us before we enter the room that a patient is approved by his health plan to receive the injection. This allows us to carefully manage our scheduling system, so we can minimize delays and shorten patient wait times.
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