How to Organize and Manage Inventory in your Pharmacy or Patent Medicine Store

Pharmacies and patent medicine stores ensure that safe and secure medicines are delivered to patients at the right time. It is important to manage and organise inventory due to the delicate nature of the services you offer as a pharmacy or patent medicine business. Having cash flow restricted due to money tied up in pharmacy inventory (this involves supplies in warehouses and medications on the shelves) could grind your business to a halt. Good inventory practices can eliminate wastage from expired drugs, accounting errors and theft. To manage and organize your pharmacy or patent medicine store, you need a blend of medical and technical skills.

Why should I be bothered about the organization?

You should be unless you want to incur lawsuits, reputational damage and unnecessary costs

• Medication errors can occur at any stage in patient care, be it the prescription stage, dispensing or administering. When your pharmacy or patent medicine store is disorganized, medication errors will be a common sight. Medication errors may be due to inaccurate order transcription, lack of patient data information to ascertain allergy history, expired products etc. Medication errors are a common issue in healthcare and have dire consequences, ranging from illness to death.
• Poor customer experience due to improper organization and management of inventory. Imagine not having the right stock when due. The pharmacy and patent medicine business is about timing. When a customer’s expectations are not met, you risk losing them to competition.

Organizing and Managing inventory

To organize and manage inventory in your pharmacy or patent medicine store, you need to have the right storage items (boxes, shelves etc) and technology. The items and tools below can go a long way in ensuring your pharmacy or patent medicine store is organized and well-managed.

• Storage racks for medications: These help to store medications such as antibiotics, antacids, etc.
• Counting Devices: Counting pills by hand can be error-prone as a pharmacist or patent medicine vendor especially when you have high volumes of prescriptions to fill. With more patients receiving electronic prescriptions; It is necessary to have a way of verifying how many pills are in every bottle.
• Cold storage facilities: Products like vaccines, serums, and oxytocin should be stored in cold storage facilities such as refrigerators. Cold facilities are enclosed spaces with constantly maintained cold temperatures.
• Mesh baskets: These are important for storing items like vials and syringes. You can also make use of a colour-coded basket system to classify scripts based on their type.
• Organizing pharmaceuticals according to product category: Due to the diversity of items, it is advisable to arrange products based on their category, e.g. injections, dressings, reagents, sutures etc. This assists in finding what you need without wasting valuable time.
• Colour codes: One of the simplest ways to organize and manage inventory is colour coding. Colour-coded labels assist staff in finding what they need when stocking shelves or giving out medications in a jiffy. Colours to use are at your discretion, You can select a specific colour for a specific area of the pharmacy or patent medicine store.
• Active workflow system: This entails having a standard procedure for everything, including daily tasks and the sale of products. An active workflow system will streamline your day-to-day activities and utilize your time and work efficiently.
• An inventory management software: The perfect inventory management software has features to help you organize and manage your inventory. It is one of the most reliable ways to manage inventory. It helps save cost, improve efficiency and minimize overstocking/understocking.

Here are things inventory management software can do for your business:

• Manage your pharmacy: Management of sales, employees, inventory and accounting in one place, with no need to rely on tedious spreadsheets.
• Procure Medicines at discounted rates: You can procure medicines at discounted rates and sell them at competitive or at market prices. With Remedial Rx, you get to bypass multiple middlemen, avoid outrageous delivery and transportation costs, enjoy the best direct-from-manufacturer rates, and make a profit.
• Auto replenishes your stock: You can automatically replenish stocks once it reaches your set benchmark and manages soon-to-expire products. This feature fixes the problem of tracking expiration dates for all your stock. This will help you track sales so you can notice the periods during which you make more sales. By tracking sales and noting your peak you will be able to know what products to stock more.
• Process error-free orders: Remedial Rx will assist in validating orders against original prescriptions from clinics and hospitals and distributing medications safely by using a unique barcode validation for similar medications or products.
• Access to Patient Medication (PMR) System: This system grants you access to patient records including patient data and medication all in one place. Records are important because they help you make fact based decisions. With the PMR system of Remedial Rx, you can decipher disease patterns in your pharmacy or patent medicine store location and know the medications to stock up more. More importantly, you don’t need capital to get the stock you require.
• Pay only what you dispense: You can now prevent losses from expired and damaged goods and maximize profits by exploring Remedial Health’s pay-only what-you-dispense option. With this feature, you will never have to waste money due to expired goods. With a 24-hour delivery rate, you get to satisfy your customers with a quick turnaround time.
• Simplified patient communication: This feature boasts of an integrated platform with SMS services for order notifications. Patients can order medicines via chat and reconcile on arrival. Just like the Patient Medication Record System, this feature lets you familiarise yourself with patients, and you can find out what drugs to stock more.

Closing Thoughts

Organizing your inventory might just be what differentiates you from the rest. It helps you run an efficient pharmacy or patent medicine business with impeccable customer service. Organizing and managing inventory does not have to be a tedious task with the right tools in place. At Remedial Health we combine the use of pharmaceutical procurement innovations, inventory financing solutions, and pharmacy operations to cater to all your pharmacy needs. To access these, kindly visit www.remedial.health