Veterinary Inventory Management: 7 Tips and Best Practices
Inventory management is not glamorous, but getting it right is critical to veterinary practice success. Well-managed inventory ensures veterinary teams have reliable supplies, eliminates costly overstocks, reduces waste, and contributes to a healthier bottom line. Here are some veterinary inventory management best practices to help you streamline this often dreaded, but necessary, task.
1. Conduct routine audits
Regular audits are the foundation of effective veterinary inventory management. Counting and reconciling stock with actual on-hand quantities helps identify serious discrepancies (e.g., theft) and allows for quick corrections. If you aren’t regularly counting items, you’ll have to deal with a big mess when you complete a count at year’s end. Plus, accurate counts help you monitor use and purchasing trends to determine appropriate stocking levels.
During audits, check expiration dates and compare them with what’s in the system. Use a first-in, first-out technique to stock shelves, so the oldest items get used first—and ensure you train all team members on its importance. Keeping a close eye on expiration dates ensures product efficacy and safety.
2. Establish restock levels
Reorder levels tell the inventory team when to reorder an item to avoid running out. Generally, you should have a two-week supply of everything you need on the shelves. You can estimate reorder levels by looking at previous sales and using reports in your veterinary practice management software, and then setting minimum quantities that trigger an alert in the system. Your software may automatically order items or populate them on a want list for manual ordering.
Evaluate and adjust reorder levels as practice conditions change. Mistakes happen, and you’ll likely overstock or run out of products from time to time, but you can use these incidents to refine reorder levels or assess your reorder process.
3. Leverage inventory management software
Solid veterinary inventory management software can be a godsend for the overworked veterinary inventory manager. These tools augment your practice manager’s built-in inventory management systems by automating tasks and analyzing use patterns to reduce human error and eliminate extra steps.
The ideal veterinary inventory management application integrates with your practice management software and augments built-in features, rather than complicating or working against them. If you’re struggling with two separate systems, consider adopting cloud-based veterinary management software that allows ongoing updates and easy access from anywhere, including at home.
4. Hire a dedicated inventory manager
Assign a team member as the dedicated inventory manager, and then provide training to ensure consistent protocols. Elevating a team member to a new position without training and guidance sets them up for failure, which damages their confidence and the hospital’s daily operations. Once the inventory person establishes protocols, the rest of the team should be trained to follow them properly.
5. Optimize supplier relationships
Strong supplier and manufacturer relationships can get your hospital priority service and beneficial extras, such as continuing education opportunities. Building a relationship with your rep will also ensure you stay informed about new products and supply changes that may affect your clients or patients.
6. Consider security checks and balances
Theft, diversion, or misuse is a concern for veterinary practices, especially with controlled substances. Keep close tabs on inventory counts to help you identify these issues, and also take preventive steps. Limit access to storage areas, especially for controlled substances and high-value items, and consider strategically placed security cameras.
7. Try a tag system
A software system can help you determine when items need reordering, but this is not a fail-safe method, because missed charges and wasted products can lead to inaccurate counts and stock depletion. Relying on team members to report items to a “want list” is also unreliable. Consider a tag system—this provides a backup, and manually inspecting shelves to populate each week’s order takes less time. Place a tag around the box or package that, once opened, triggers a reorder. Team members drop the tags into a specific container, and the inventory manager uses them to create weekly order lists.
Leveraging technology to implement veterinary inventory management best practices ensures you have products when needed and streamlines the inventory manager’s job. Investing time and resources into overhauling inventory benefits your bottom line and enhances patient care.
