If your pharmacy is like most others today, you have many challenges that you cannot control. One thing you can control is your inventory, your largest investment, and your biggest expense. Moving to perpetual and/or automating your process can be transformative.
Common pharmacy challenges
Stiff competition, declining and negative reimbursements, DIR fees, and the constant crush of PBM’s. Working capital can be severely strained. Help is right behind you in the pharmacy every day – Your RX Drug Inventory sitting on your shelves.
- Tap into your RX inventories as a much-needed source of working capital
- Eliminate surplus – get the cash of the shelves and into the bank
- Optimize your largest investment and biggest expense
- Enjoy the comfort of greater profits and better cash flow
Perpetual Inventory is a form of inventory management whereby on hand quantities are constantly updated for dispensing and replenishment.
Common problems when not running perpetual
There are many issues that you encounter when you do not use perpetual inventory
- Inventory $’s are only accurate right after a physical count, which leads to blind decisions
- Financial conditions are largely unknown (inability to manage cost changes leaves you blind to whether you are making or losing $)
- Inventory level inaccuracies High exposure to stock-outs, over-stocking and expired returns
- Elevated odds for Theft / Fraud / Diversion
- Time-intensive ordering
Benefits of Perpetual Inventory
- On-hand inventory is always accurate
- Financial conditions (inventory investment and profitability) are readily available - better decisions and access to bank credit
- Theft/Fraud/Diversion - shrink is easy to spot when PMS & shelf disagree
- Optimal inventory levels are achievable - free up working capital
- Choice of manual or EDI ordering - less time and money spent
Tips to start using perpetual inventory
- Conduct a physical inventory (on-hands need to be accurate)
- Set and maintain reorder points (Mins / OP’s) and reorder quantities (Max / OQ’s) for all items in the formulary, while recognizing generically equivalent groups and constant changes in dispense volume. (Manually or through Automation)
- Establish “preferred” items in generic groups
- Adjust on Hands for all dispense and replenishment events •Place orders when On Hands < / = Min/ OP· (Manual or EDI)
Download the Ultimate Guide to Perpetual Inventory to learn more about perpetual inventory today.
