How to Implement Laboratory Inventory Management System Effectively

OSP Solution – A Holistic Laboratory Inventory Management System  

A US-based client was looking to develop a complete management system that could combine data from different healthcare warehouses and generate easy-to-understand accumulation reports for 340B, WAC, and GPO accounts and savings reports that calculate the amount saved on each 340B drug.   

What We Offered:  

Implementation Tips for Laboratory Inventory Management Software  

1. Know Your Requirements:  

The first and most critical step when building laboratory inventory management software is to understand the healthcare organization’s specific needs. This requires a deep analysis of the current lab systems and the potential areas of improvement. To get you started on this process, here are a few key questions to consider:  

Answering these preliminary questions will help your organization gain perspective and understanding of the needs and elements of the development. Automated healthcare solutions should be incorporated to match specific needs that can add value to the lab and the healthcare organization.    

Evaluate Your Options:  

Many developers now offer laboratory information management systems. The key is to identify the option that suits your personal and customized requirements. Laboratory inventory management solutions should be in tune with the ongoing practice management solutions for smooth end-to-end workflow management. The below questions can prove beneficial while evaluating developmental options:  

Ensuring that the laboratory information management system is designed and developed based on predictive analysis can create competencies through hospital supply chain optimization. Hospital inventory management software uses a combination of patient and clinical data that enables hospitals to predict the probability of certain consequences through healthcare cloud computing.    

Factor Your Costs:  

Once the options are evaluated, and the specific development has been identified, the next order of business involves budgeting. The costs involved in developing inventory management software for healthcare are one of the most critical elements. It would be wise to set up a budget and then work within the framework of that budget. Contracts can be drawn up based on cost analysis. Here are a few key questions to consider regarding the cost elements:  

A laboratory inventory management solution will increase overall revenue generation through a systemized experience that addresses personalized requirements of all health entities. However, it is vital to analyze if the means justify the end. Developmental cost analysis will assist in this matter and provide a precise profit ratio against costs.   

Describe Your Specifics:  

Just as it is with advanced telehealth solutions, the inventory management process of healthcare organizations is particular. A detailed discussion with the developer toward addressing specific features relative to your lab is a crucial developmental step. Below are some questions that will ensure that the discussion covers every important milestone:  

Customizing laboratory inventory management systems eventually provide more personalized care through patient engagement systems. Integrating and automating pharmacy operations offers real-time visibility into inventory purchasing, like classifying medicine quantities across locations and forestalling upcoming shortages.   

Train Your Personnel:   

As the development process nears completion, it would be prudent that the users are well on their way toward being trained for optimal usage. This process must go hand-in-hand with testing the lab management software. The process defined as ‘user acceptance testing’ will orient lab staff toward the system and also determine its usability across the personnel. Common questions to consider are as follows:  

Finally, staff training towards using a database system, where the data of eligible patients is stored through medical informatics, will ensure that the laboratory stock management software is living up to its full potential.   

Verify Your Software:  

A usual practice with remote health monitoring systems, but also critical with laboratory inventory management software, is verifying the software. The lab inventory systems must undergo a formal verification process based on the regulatory requirements. Ask yourself the below questions to ensure that this step is comprehensively addressed:  

Healthcare organizations must develop an online lab management system that covers all aspects of compliance and provides an understanding of areas where performance can be enhanced and improved. It should focus on policies and procedures for comprehensiveness and uniformity and automatically update any policy and guideline changes.   

Factor In Your Future Needs:  

Even though your present laboratory inventory management software should address your organization’s current needs, there should always be room for additions and modifications. For example, you may be using the system at just one location. However, there may arise a need to implement the system at another location in the future. These additions can be considered by answering the below questions:  

Although laboratory inventory management techniques are usually coherent across organizations, automation brings in plenty of variational potentials. Laboratory equipment tracking software can be infused with efficiency through process-flow automation of stocking, numerical balances, monitoring, and tracking, warehouse stock manifests, and dispensing updates.  

Conclusion  

Adopting a sound methodology toward inventory system deployment can streamline processes and increase profitability. Automation toward operational efficiencies requires intuitive solutions for electronic savings at the stage of medication dispensing. Finally, automation features instantly reduce time and resources spent on managing audits and offer flagging capabilities that minimize fraud and abuse, thus allowing complete compliance.