Importance of Hospital Inventory Management in the Healthcare Industry

The proliferation of new technology in healthcare is exploding. The healthcare sector in the United States comprises of a total of 5,534 registered hospitals which cater to around 35,158,934 patients as recorded by the American Hospital Association. During the next few years, North America is expected to dominate the healthcare asset management sector and expected to grow at a rate of 35% between 2015-2020. The reason behind North America’s rapid improvement is found to be its large share of real-time location systems (RTLS). It has been estimated that the use of such systems will boost up investment in the healthcare sector as well.

Keeping in mind this huge number, hospitals require a large number of tools and equipment to function. So, what can hospitals do to ensure flawless management of daily work routines? To answer this question, International Journal of Health Geographics suggests an increase in the use of real-time locating systems for the healthcare sector.

The use of RTLS enables hospitals to implement robust inventory management practices which entail the following:

• Setting forth a stock management system for optimal workflows
• Automated check-in and check-out to keep track of custodianship
• Record depreciation of perishable hospital tools and equipment  
• Store all vendor details for future reference and seamless reorders
• Get inventory transfer location updates to maximize security