healthcare par inventory

Healthcare PAR Inventory Management - Best Practices

Did you know that only two percent of companies were knowledgeable beyond Tier 2 of their supply chain? For many, this caused disruptions in their products and supplies.

Implementing smart innovation and technology can help supply chain issues. It can also help you plan for changes in circumstances or emergencies. Hospitals are one sector that can benefit from PAR inventory management.

Regular and automatic resupplies are critical to achieving a more robust healthcare system. So, How can PAR inventory help your company?

Fortunately, we have put together a complete guide on PAR inventory. We also address how hospitals and medical facilities can streamline and automate services for better performance outcomes.

Medical-Specific Supply Chain Shortages

Since the start of the pandemic in 2019, almost 99% of hospitals reported supply chain issues. Additionally, nearly 80% experienced shortages, requiring new vendor contracts. The COVID-19 supply chain disruption is primarily to blame.

Labor shortages, transport issues, and overseas shipments are slowly getting back to full speed. The ripple effect is felt more in the healthcare industry as inventory shortages in a medical facility can have serious negative impacts on patient care.

It can increase burn-out and push employees to their breaking point. Two critical factors are, optimizing inventory and regularly restocking shipments. Improving inventory management can reduce costs and improve hospital efficiency reports.

What Is PAR Inventory

A basic PAR inventory definition is a type of inventory tracking system used in various industries. PAR is an acronym that stands for Periodic Automatic Replenishment.

When you search the web for PAR inventory system examples, you will likely come across many businesses discussing the benefits of PAR-level inventory in restaurants. Par level is the type and quantity of supplies needed on hand every day.

Medical offices and hospitals work similarly. Certain supplies must meet minimum inventory requirements each day, and using PAR in inventory can help.

Recent studies examined hospital inventories in Ethiopia. Non-essential items consumed almost 10% of annual expenditures. Better communication and inventory systems can reduce unnecessary or over-expenditure.

PAR Levels

To start off, you have different PAR levels. You can make these reasonably simple by setting minimum and maximum inventory supply numbers for each product.

When products hit near or at minimum ranges, you select a reorder. In many instances, maximum levels should be avoided since it can lead to excessive supplies, lack of storage, and expiration risk.

How do you calculate PAR levels?

The best method is pulling data from past inventory levels and usage. You can see yearly trends and adjust inventory as needed throughout the year.

A technology-advanced PAR inventory system can streamline this process. Making it easier to track a hospital or facility's shipments.

What Is a PAR Inventory Sheet?

Old school pen and paper methods are inefficient and outdated practices for managing inventory. Instead, PAR inventory sheets were created and simply managed from a hand-held device.

Through innovative solutions like BlueQ Analytics and SmartScan, you can scan, manage, and update your medical supplies more efficiently than ever before. One major benefit of using technology is that it can provide accurate supply numbers. The data will also be regularly updated and therefore assist with efficiently ordering shipments.

2-Bin Kanban Systems

2-Bin Kanban systems are supply chain management devices used in healthcare information technology (HIT). Kanban can track and manage your inventory and using Kanban supply bins help inventory management identify the number and location of items with ease.

The main benefit of a Kanban system is better performance analytics. Kanban systems also benefit:

  • Labor costs
  • Re-supply orders
  • Lack of supplies
  • Expired supplies
  • Clinician and patient satisfaction

There is constant re-stocking in a Kanban system. For example, whenever bins are empty, they are removed and replaced with a full bin. The empty bin is automatically registered for a re-shipment.

The older products are moved to the front when the new supplies come, ensuring fewer risks of using expired supplies. If you are unsure of your daily supply usage, Kanban systems can monitor and track your day-to-day changes and adjust shipments as needed.

You will need fewer re-supply orders and inventory staff workers with Kanban solutions.

What Are ERP Systems?

ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning. It is a broad term that helps manage business functions and improve processing.

ERP in supply chain management combines multiple data points to optimize analytics and performance to achieve efficiency. These projections can help you plan for emergent situations through two main types:

  • Cloud-based
  • Traditional

Many hospital inventory managers are turning towards more technologically advanced cloud-based ERP systems.

These systems streamline inventory services and ease the burden placed upon staff members, but it is still crucial that staff complete training since these systems are not entirely foolproof. Here are four main areas to focus on with new cloud-based inventory systems:

  • Streamlined procurement process
  • Smarter inventory management
  • Better strategic sourcing
  • Improved analytics

Traditional ERP systems only allow access on-premise. Usually, traditional ERP systems require on-site IT or technical teams, more training, and can be very costly.

While this can include closer monitoring, there are a few risks involved. For instance, you could lose data on the server if there are power outages. You will also lose out on better inventory processing, management, shipments, and reporting than cloud-based resources.

Analytics Importance

BlueQ Analytics helps identify critical inventory information and provides fast analytics. How does this compare to traditional ERP dashboards?

  • PARs management reports
  • Accessibility
  • PAR in inventory locations
  • Rotation metrics
  • Labor/time management
  • Scalability
  • Optimization reports
  • And more

Analytics allow for the utmost efficiency in inventory management. These services help reduce overall costs and improve hospital performance. This also helps with more positive patient care outcomes because of a reduction in strain on clinical staff.

Improving Medical Inventories

Medical supply shortages change health outcomes for patients and hospital efficiency for staff. PAR inventory is a system that can automate shipments and restock supplies.

This takes the burden out of manual supply checks and reduces overall costs and human error. At BlueBin, we have several resources and consulting options to help your health care facility succeed.

Redesigning inventory management is just one of the first steps of the process. Contact us today to discover how BlueBin can help you find better success and outcomes!

 

learn more about BlueBin Kanban

Back to Blog

Related Articles

Top Hospital Supply Chain Challenges and the Solutions

Long Beach, California, manages 40% of the nation's cargo containers entering. At the end of 2021,...

3 Strategies for healthcare Supply Chain Management in 2022

How can hospitals increase price transparency amongst all the different departments and people? By...

How to Properly Improve Your Healthcare Inventory Management System

Did you know that the World Health Organization (WHO) predicts PPE would need to increase by 40% to