Medical device inventory management (MDIM) is a critical function in the healthcare industry, as it helps to ensure that the right equipment is available when needed, reducing the risk of adverse events and improving patient care.
MDIM can be implemented in a number of ways, but all aim to achieve the same goals:
• Keeping track of all medical devices in an organization so that they are properly accounted for and monitored
• Ensuring that the correct amount of equipment is on hand to meet anticipated needs
• Minimizing disruptions to patient care
Why is medical device inventory management important? What are the challenges to proper inventory management, and is outsourcing it better? How are you able to improve your inventory management?
Why Is Medical Device Inventory Management Important?
Medical device inventory management is important for hospitals and labs because it helps to ensure that the right devices are available when needed.
When done correctly, medical device inventory management can help to reduce costs by avoiding overstocking or understocking of devices, improve patient care by ensuring that the right devices are available when needed, and improve safety by avoiding the use of expired or damaged devices.
In addition, medical device inventory management can help to improve hospital efficiency by reducing the time spent searching for devices or managing stock levels.
The Benefits of Medical Device Inventory Management
Medical device inventory management is a key part of effective hospital operations. While many hospitals attempt to do all this work on their own, hiring a third party to manage your inventory comes with significant benefits:
Minimized Losses
By reducing the number of devices that are lost or stolen each year, medical device inventory management can save hospitals money.
Reliable Access
By ensuring that patients have access to the devices they need when they need them, MDIM can also improve patient care.
Streamlined Service
By reducing the amount of time staff spend searching for and managing devices, outsourced inventory management can increase operational efficiency.
The Challenges of Medical Device Inventory Management
As a complex process, managing medical device inventories comes with its share of difficulties and hurdles to overcome.
Tracking
The challenge of keeping track of medical devices should be obvious: there are a lot of different types and serial numbers for each device. Keeping track of them all can be a challenge, especially if they’re all spread out across multiple locations.
Controlling Costs
Medical devices are often expensive, so controlling costs is essential for efficient and economical operations.
Unreliable Data
Inaccurate inventory data can lead to patient care problems. Hospitals need to make sure that their inventory data is accurate in order to provide the best possible care for their patients.
Timeliness
Delivering medical devices on time is critical; when something goes wrong as a result, it can have serious consequences for patients.
Hardware & Software Updates
Many, if not most, medical devices these days are controlled by computer technology. Frequent updates are needed to ensure the equipment is functioning properly. Lives may depend on it.
Recalls
Managing recalls is also important. When a medical device has been recalled and hospitals are aware of it, they need to take immediate action in order to remove the device from use and replace it with a new one. This can be difficult if there’s no good tracking system in place already.
How to Improve Your Medical Device Inventory Management
The best first step you can take to improve your hospital’s medical device inventory management is to talk to a third-party provider that specializes in it. Stat Experts has extensive experience managing medical device inventories for a long list of healthcare facilities.
At Stat Experts, we understand the critical nature of managing your equipment:
• Medical devices are an important part of healthcare, and Stat Experts’ accurate inventory management can ensure that they are used properly and cost-effectively.
• Stat Experts’ technology can help streamline medical device inventory management processes, making them more efficient and reducing the amount of time needed to manage the inventory.
• At Stat Experts, we can reduce your costs while helping you improve your patient care.
• We also know how to address and solve the many challenges of effective medical device inventory management, which must be overcome in order to maintain a proper balance between available resources and patient needs.
If you’d like to explore what Stat Experts can do to improve your medical device inventory management, just give us a call. We’ll walk you through our processes and demonstrate how we can help your hospital run more efficiently than ever.
