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Four Tips for Managing and Ordering Medical Supplies
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Managing medical supplies for Health Safety and Environment (HSE) Managers and occupational medical providers can feel like an unending burden. Their responsibilities can be overwhelming between tracking inventory and putting first aid kits together.
Our experts on medical shipping services understand the specific challenges of managing and ordering medical supplies and offer you this list of tips to make things easier. The following suggestions will help you lower costs by making responsible purchasing decisions, reducing waste, and easing ordering demands.
Become familiar with medical kits and ordering
Knowing where supplies are shipped from, the quantities needed, and the types of supplies are essential elements to keep in mind when ordering medical supplies. Your initial order may be affected by unavailable items or restrictions on certain products. In addition, knowing where they will be shipped from will help you plan for transit time before delivery.
Be specific when placing orders. Familiarity with the brands and specifications of supplies you are ordering can make the ordering process more efficient. In addition, knowing all the details of customs, brokers, and storage of supplies can assist with shipping. It is usually okay to order generic medications instead of name brands to manage costs.
Avoid waste
Waste is an ongoing problem in the medical field. In many cases, medical supplies are wasted because people are unfamiliar with them. This becomes an issue when they open them up, but do not have the knowledge to use them properly. Unfortunately, many medical supplies must remain sealed until they are used to ensure they remain sterile. Once these products are opened, they cannot be saved for later use. The best way to reduce waste and ensure effective ordering is to familiarize yourself and others with the products and their uses. Keep products on hand for training and practice, too.
Keep storage together when possible
Sometimes you need supplies quickly due to an emergency, but you cannot locate them. This can lead to reordering them because they cannot be found, even if you still have plenty of stock on hand. Try to keep your medical supply storage close together, in a consistent location, and easily accessible to reduce redundancy in ordering. Doing this will also decrease response time and stress during an emergency.
Simplify your inventory system
It is easy for inventory systems to become frustrating and overly complex. This problem can lead to inventory issues due to ordering based on guesses and hunches rather than based on actual inventory levels. Taking the extra time to create an easy-to-use inventory tracking system will increase your medical
providers’ quality of care and compliance. Digital inventory system implementation prevents confusion among the team and allows management to track inventory easily. Using a barcode scanning inventory system ensures accurate tracking and eliminates the accidental reordering of stocked items.
