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RFID: Defined for Hospital Inventory Tracking

Posted on August 17, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

A Supply Chain Management Strategy

By Staff Reporters

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RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION

RFID refers to a device attached to an object that transmits data to an RFID receiver. A device can be a large piece of hospital hardware the size of a small book like those attached to ocean containers, or a very small device inserted into a label on a package. RFID has advantages over bar codes such as the ability to hold more data, and to change the stored data as processing occurs. Moreover, it does not require line-of-sight to transfer data, and is very effective in harsh environments where bar-code labels will not work. RFID is not without its own problems, however, as RF signals can be compromised by materials such as metals and liquids.

SCM: https://medicalexecutivepost.com/2011/06/09/supply-chain-management-in-healthcare/

Although RFID technology is receiving much current attention, it still tends to be cost-prohibitive for some hospital inventory tracking applications. As chip prices go down, there will be continued growth in the application of RFID, but, as in the case of 2D bar codes, many hospital warehouse applications simply do not require this added functionality. The low-cost 1D bar code may continue to be the technology of choice for many hospital inventory tracking applications in the short term.

Smart labels are labels with integrated RFID chips. The idea is to produce labels (probably with bar codes) as well as programming the RFID chips embedded in the label. This would provide all current functionality (human- and machine-readable text and bar codes) as well as adding RFID functionality.

Slap-and-ship describes an approach to complying with vendor requirements for physical identification of shipped goods. More recently, slap-and-ship has been used to describe complying With RFID requirements (such as those from large health care systems); however, it is also applicable to any compliance labeling requirement (such as compliance bar-code labels). Slap-and-ship implies meeting the customer’s requirement by applying the bar-code labels or RFID tags, but not utilizing the technology internally.

SCM PODCAST: https://medicalexecutivepost.com/2022/03/16/podcast-medical-supply-chain-management/

Finally, anti-skimming bills were first approved by California and Washington State relative to RFID privacy and are focused on making it illegal for criminals or businesses (or criminal businesses) to read and use personal information from RFID-enabled items such as driver’s licenses and credit cards without the owner’s consent.

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Filed under: "Ask-an-Advisor", business, Glossary Terms, Health Economics, Information Technology, Videos | Tagged: artificial intelligence, logistics, marketing, Radio Frequency Identification, RFID, SCM, skimming, slap andship, smart abel, supply chain management, Technology | Leave a comment »

MARKETING, ADVERTISING & SALES: Public Relations, Change and Crisis Management

Posted on April 19, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

THE BASICS FOR FOR PHYSICIANS, INSURANCE AGENTS AND FINANCIAL ADVISORS

By Staff Reporters

SPONSOR: http://www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.org

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There’s often a disconnect between physicians, insurance agents and financial advisors and the patients and clients they’d like to serve. Both might ostensibly share the same goal but there’s often a big difference in perspective. Advisors / Physicians and would-be clients / patients likely have different communication styles, especially in an age where technology has greatly changed the way we talk with one another. Their expectations and priorities can also often dramatically diverge. Those structural gaps can hinder collaboration and trust.

To bridge this divide, you must understand how prospective clients and patients think nowadays and be able to adjust your M.A.S. approach accordingly.

THE BASICS

Marketing is the business process of identifying, anticipating and satisfying patient’s, client’s or customers’ needs and wants. It is your unique value proposition or strategic competitive advantage. Marketers can direct product to other businesses or directly to consumers. But, we believe it is actually your strategic competitive advantage [SCA] which differentiates yourself from competitors. It is the “moat” around your business.

Advertising is a marketing communication that employs an openly sponsored, non-personal message to promote or sell a product, service or idea. Sponsors of advertising are typically businesses wishing to promote their products or services. Advertising is communicated through various mass media outlet, including traditional media such as newspapers, magazines, television, radio, outdoor advertising or direct mail; and new media such as search results, blogs, social media, websites or text messages. The actual presentation of the message in a medium is referred to as an advertisement, or “ad” or advert for short. But, we believe that is simply how you disseminate your strategic competitive advantage [SCM] to potential clients.

Sales close the deal and collects money. Sales are activities related to selling or the number of goods or services sold in a given targeted time period. The seller, or the provider of the goods or services, completes a sale in response to an acquisition, appropriation, requisition, or a direct interaction with the buyer at the point of sale. There is a passing of title (property or ownership) of the item, and the settlement of a price, in which agreement is reached on a price for which transfer of ownership of the item will occur. The seller, not the purchaser, typically executes the sale and it may be completed prior to the obligation of payment. In the case of indirect interaction, a person who sells goods or service on behalf of the owner is known as a salesman or saleswoman or salesperson, but this often refers to someone selling goods in a store/shop, in which case other terms are also common, including salesclerk, shop assistant, and retail clerk.

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DERIVATIVE THOUGHTS

Public Relations [PR] is differentiated than advertising from in that an advertiser pays for and has control over the message. It differs from personal selling in that the message is non-personal, i.e., not directed to a particular individual. We pay for advertising but pray for public relations. But public relations are not controllable but it is free, while advertising is not. PR suggests that “good news or bad news”; just spell the name correctly

Change Management is the discipline that guides how we prepare, equip and support individuals to successfully adopt to change in order to drive organizational success and outcomes.

Crisis Management is the precautions and identification of threats to an organization and its stakeholders, and the methods used by the organization to deal with these threats.

MODERNITY NOW

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management, which is a system for managing all interactions with current and potential customers, clients or patients. The goal is simple: improve relationships to grow your business or medical practice. CRM technology helps companies stay connected to customers, streamline processes, and improve profitability.

When people talk about CRM, they’re usually referring to a CRM system: software that helps track each interaction you have with a prospect, patient or customer. That can include sales calls, treatment plans or service interactions, marketing e-mails, and more. CRM tools can unify customer and company data from many sources and even use Artificial Intelligene [AI] to help better manage relationships across the entire customer – patient lifecycle – spanning departments described in the M.A.S. basics, above.

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Filed under: "Ask-an-Advisor", Career Development, CMP Program, Events-Planner, Glossary Terms, Health Insurance, Information Technology, Insurance Matters, LifeStyle | Tagged: advertising, AI, business, change management, CMP, content-marketing, crisis management, CRM, digital marketing, insurane agents, marketing, PR, public relations, sales, SCA, SCM, seo | Leave a comment »

BLACK FRIDAY: Profiting From “Reverse Supply Chain Logistics”

Posted on November 29, 2024 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

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Black Friday, one of the biggest shopping days of the year, is a half day for the stock market. Both stock exchanges close at 1:00 p.m. ET, with eligible options trading until 1:15 p.m. Normal trading hours resume on the Monday after Thanksgiving, also known as Cyber Monday, when many online retailers host major sales.

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SPONSOR: http://www.MarcinkoAssociates.com

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DEFINITION: Reverse logistics—or the supply-chain processes of returns—is a little-known but rapidly growing sector of the economy that’s booming alongside the rise in online shopping that started during the pandemic.

Now, as retailers crack down on returns to avoid hearing another “it was broken when I got it” excuse, some companies are counting on you to send your holiday gifts back. A “reverse logistics” industry has sprung up in recent years to take advantage of the more than $300 billion in returns Americans make every holiday season.

Venture capital firms pumped nearly $200 million into reverse logistics startups last year—over 2.5x as much as in 2021, according to Bloomberg.
Loop Returns, which sells software to companies looking to streamline the return process on the customer side, raised $115 million at the end of 2022.

Established companies see potential in reverse logistics as well. Last year, Uber launched a feature enabling drivers to pick up your packages and bring them to a returns center. Meanwhile, UPS, whose returns business has grown 25% since 2020, recently acquired the startup Happy Returns.

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Filed under: "Ask-an-Advisor", Alternative Investments, Funding Basics, Glossary Terms, Investing, LifeStyle, Mortgage Electronic Registry System | Tagged: black Friday, Fannie Mae, happy returns, inflation, loop returns, Marcinko, markets, mortgage rates, mortgages, SCM, supply chain management | Leave a comment »

CHARGE MASTER: Medical Bills Paradox

Posted on November 20, 2024 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

SPONSOR: http://www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.org

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CHARGE MASTER MEDICAL BILLS

Classic Definition: A comprehensive review of a physician, clinic, facility, medical provider or hospital’s charges to ensure Medicare billing compliance through complete and accurate HCPCS/CPT and UB-92 revenue code assignments for all items including supplies and pharmaceuticals. The charge master captures the costs of each procedure, service, supply, prescription drug, and diagnostic test provided at the hospital, as well as any fees associated with services, such as equipment fees and room charges

Modern Circumstance: A charge master quizlet (charge description master [CDM]) document that contains a computer-generated list of procedures, services, and supplies with charges for each. Charge master rates are essentially the health care market equivalent of Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) in the car buying market. Poor charge master maintenance can lead to overpayments or underpayments. It can also lead to claim rejections from insurance companies, poor patient experience, or compliance violations.

Paradox Examples:

Superbills: An encounter form that is the financial record source document used by healthcare providers and other personnel to record treated diagnoses and services rendered to the patient during the current encounter. It is also called a superbill.
Payment rates: Almost no one actually pays the publicized charge master rates. The vast majority of health care consumers are represented by a payer of some kind, such as a commercial health insurance company, Medicaid, or Medicare. Commercial insurers negotiate the actual prices they pay during the process of contracting with providers. Medicare and Medicaid establish their own payment levels independent of hospitals’ charge master lists – Medicare through the federal government and Medicaid through state governments.
Cash pay: The sad irony of the charge master is that the uninsured are the most likely to be billed charge master rates because they are not represented by a third-party payer.
Problematic features: Other items also impede the ability of payers to have a comprehensive and accurate understanding of hospitals’ financial positions. For example, nonprofit hospitals are required to report charity care, bad debt expenses, community benefit initiatives, and uncompensated care. When these expenses are reported at the charge master level, expenses can be paradoxically overstated, potentially making a hospital’s financial position look worse than it actually is.

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Filed under: "Advisors Only", "Ask-an-Advisor", "Doctors Only", Accounting, CMP Program, Glossary Terms, Health Economics, Health Insurance, Health Law & Policy, Healthcare Finance, iMBA, Inc., Insurance Matters, Managed Care, Marcinko Associates | Tagged: business, charge master, CMP, healthcare, iMBA, Institute Medical Business Advisors, logistics, Marcinko, medical bills, medical bills charge master, medical business advisors, medical executive post, SCM, supply chain, supply chain management | Leave a comment »

National Supply Chain Management Day: Health Care “White Paper”

Posted on April 29, 2024 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP

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National Supply Chain Management Day is celebrated on April 29th every year to mark the binding importance of the global supply chain in the everyday lives of people. National Supply Chain Day brings all stakeholders together to share recent developments in the field. Introduced in 2020 by a Georgia-based packaging outlet, this holiday aims to raise awareness about the way a supply chain affects all of us, and how we can be better partners and benefactors of the global supply chain management system.

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One of the most iconic symbols of the COVID economy was the epic backlog of container ships waiting to dock at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. At one point this year, that backup was longer than the line at Trader Joe’s on a Saturday, stretching 109 ships deep and almost 60 miles from the coast.

But now, the shipping situation is almost back to normal. As of last week, the number of ships waiting to drop off their goods stood at just four, according to the WSJ. Plus, the cost of sending a 40-foot container from Shanghai to LA has plummeted from its peak of more than $12,000 to almost $2,000, nearing its pre-COVID average.

The fact that goods are once again flowing smoothly through US ports is a hopeful sign that inflation, which was instigated in part by supply chain snarls, could start to abate.

CITE: https://www.r2library.com/Resource/Title/082610254

WHITE PAPER: https://medicalexecutivepost.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/scm-dr.-dem-sample.pdf

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ORDER: https://www.amazon.com/Hospitals-Healthcare-Organizations-Management-Operational/dp/1439879907/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334193619&sr=1-4

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Filed under: "Doctors Only", Health Economics, Information Technology, LifeStyle, Managed Care, Marcinko Associates, Practice Management | Tagged: healthcare scm, Marcinko, medical scm, SCM, SCM: Supply Chain Management in Healthcare, supply chain, supply chain management | Leave a comment »

PODCAST: Financially Hospitals Must Survive

Posted on May 9, 2023 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

HOW TO SURVIVE?

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Filed under: "Doctors Only", Accounting, Ethics, Experts Invited, Health Economics, Health Insurance, Healthcare Finance, Risk Management, Videos | Tagged: Eric Bricker MD, hospital costs, hospital healthcare costs, hospitals, lower hospital costs, SCM | Leave a comment »

HOSPITALS: Financial Management Update

Posted on January 21, 2023 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

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ORDER: https://www.amazon.com/Financial-Management-Strategies-Healthcare-Organizations/dp/1466558733/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1380743521&sr=8-3&keywords=david+marcinko

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Hospitals saw a slight financial boost in November 2022, despite continued negative operating margins throughout the year, according to a new Kaufman Hall National Hospital Flash Report, as reported in Healthcare Brew.

Lower expenses and increased outpatient revenue help buoy their performance and increase margins by 12% month over month from October 2022. But Kaufman Hall, a management consulting firm, reported that its year-to-date operating margin index reflected an actual negative figure of -0.2% in November 2022.

The findings underscore the financial challenges hospitals continue to face as they recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.

And, Erik Swanson, senior vice president of data and analytics at Kaufman Hall, wrote that the “November data, while mildly improved compared to October, solidifies what has been a difficult year for hospitals amidst labor shortages, supply chain issues, and rising interest rates.”

ORDER: https://www.amazon.com/Hospitals-Healthcare-Organizations-Management-Operational/dp/1439879907/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334193619&sr=1-4

The monthly report, which is based on data from more than 900 hospitals, partially attributed November’s lowered expenses to a decline in patient volume and slightly shorter lengths of stay. Decreased labor costs, likely due to a drop in a reliance on contract labor, also helped lower expenses, the Kaufman analysis found.

CITE: https://www.r2library.com/Resource/Title/0826102549

Hospitals further saw a 10% increase year over year in outpatient revenue in November 2022, despite inpatient revenue remaining flat, according to the report. Swanson said “[h]ospital leaders should continue to develop their outpatient care capabilities amid ongoing industry uncertainty and transformation.”

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Filed under: "Doctors Only", Career Development, Experts Invited, Health Economics, Health Law & Policy, Healthcare Finance, iMBA, Inc., Managed Care | Tagged: Erik Swanson, Financial Management Hospitals, Healthcare Brew, Hospital Finances, hospital financial management, Kaufman-Hall, SCM | Leave a comment »

Healthcare LOGISTICS Survey

Posted on May 27, 2022 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By MCOL

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4 Key Take-Aways

• 87% of nurses said that medical courier deliveries—or lack thereof—impacted their work weekly.
• 32% of nurses have created a “secret stash” of supplies.
• 27% have personally transported an item to another facility in the past year to overcome courier issues.
• 19% said that errors or delays impacted their ability to provide patient care five or more times per month.

Source: American Nurse Journal via Businesswire

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Filed under: Health Economics, Health Insurance, Practice Management | Tagged: ANJ, Businesswire, global healthcare logistics, healthcare logistics, MCOL, SCM, supply chain management | Leave a comment »

UPDATE: Domestic Stock Indices and SCM

Posted on April 30, 2022 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

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By Staff Reporters

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DEFINITION:

In finance, a stock index, or stock market index, is an index that measures a stock market, or a subset of the stock market, that helps investors compare current stock price levels with past prices to calculate market performance.

CITE: https://www.r2library.com/Resource/Title/082610254

How did domestic stock indexes perform?

The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -2.77% dropped 939.18 points, or 2.8%, to close at 32,977.21.
The S&P 500 SPX, -3.63% dropped 155.57 points, or 3.6%, to finish at 4,131.93, re-entering correction territory.
The NASDAQ Composite COMP, -4.17% shed 536.89 points, or 4.2%, to end at 12,334.64.

Ironically, on Thursday, the Dow rose 614.46 points, or 1.9%, while the S&P 500 gained 2.5% and the NASDAQ Composite jumped 3.1%. The Dow and S&P 500 marked their best daily percentage climbs since March 9, while the NASDAQ saw its best day since March 16th, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

For the week, the Dow dropped 2.5%, the S&P 500 slumped 3.3% and the tech-laden NASDAQ lost 3.9%. In April, the Dow fell 4.9%, the S&P 500 tumbled 8.8% and the NASDAQ plunged 13.3%.

SCM: Supply chain bottlenecks are still stinging corporate giants. With China locking down cities at the first trace of Covid, American companies whose products are made in Chinese factories aren’t able to fulfill orders. Apple said Thursday that it would face up to $8 billion in losses due to restrictions in Shanghai.

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Filed under: Alerts Sign-Up, Glossary Terms, Investing | Tagged: Dow Jones, JDIA, NASDAQ, S&P, SCM, stock indices | Leave a comment »

Understanding Global Location Numbers Used in Healthcare Today

Posted on October 18, 2013 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Defining Global Location Numbers in Hospital Supply Chain Management

By Adam Higman and Brian Mullahey

By Kristin Spenik and Jerzy Kaczor

Global Location Numbers (GLNs) are widely used throughout healthcare supply chain groups.

The Dictionary of Health Information Technology and Security defines a GLN as a unique, 13-digit number that links the name, industry, and address of a particular item that pinpoints the “legal, functional, or physical location within a business or organizational entity”, in particular hospitals and healthcare organizations.

Legal: Hospitals, healthcare organizations, distributors, suppliers, freight carriers, etc.
Functional: Specific departments within legal entities, i.e. purchasing departments, nursing stations, wards, etc. in hospitals
Physical: Hospital rooms, hospital wings, cabinets, shelving units, delivery points, loading docks, warehouses, etc.

AHRMM

According to the Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management, the premier organization for healthcare supply chain professionals, global locations numbers can recover your facility’s revenue stream, enhance the accuracy of documenting Group Purchasing Organization [GPO] sales, and end the use “of single purpose proprietary supplier numbers”.

The Objective

The ultimate objective is getting everyone involved in the supply chain process to use identical numbers.

For instance, if the GPO communicates to the manufacturer that your hospital utilizes a specific GLN, then it is more likely that the manufacturer will associate the hospital’s materials and supplies with the correct GPO contract price.

In addition, if distributors utilize GLNs along with manufacturers and producers to determine the manufacturer’s price that was given, the hospital will likely secure the correct rate when purchasing supplies directly from distributors.

Conclusion

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Filed under: Glossary Terms, Information Technology | Tagged: AHRMM, Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management, Dictionary of Health Information Technology and Security, GLNs, Global Location Numbers, GPO, Hospital Supply Chain Management, SCM | Leave a comment »

Hospital Materials Management Information Systems [Part 2]

Posted on January 8, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Fundamentals of Software Implementation

By David J. Piasecki; CPIM

By Hope Rachel Hetico; RN, MHA

Dr. David Edward Marcinko; MBA

www.HealthcareFinancials.com

The singular focus of any Hospital Materials Management Information System (HMMIS) is to deliver significant improvements in the ability of hospital facilities, networks, and other healthcare organizations to optimize the processes and work flows associated with materials management systems and reduce the costs related to inventory, durable medical equipment, pharmaceuticals and supply chain management (SCM).

Understanding Strategies

Strategically, hospitals must exploit contemporary technologies and connectivity with suppliers and trading partners to:

improve patient care and safety,
increase efficiency,
drive down costs, and
optimize inventory levels.

Software Implementation

As with the selection process written about previously, ERP software implementation may also require outside assistance. Whether you use consultants from the software vendor, a business partner, or an independent firm, the implementation plan will likely be the same. It’s very important to listen to consultants and be prepared to dedicate the resources outlined in the implementation plan. A common mistake made by healthcare entities going through their first major implementation is to underestimate the complexity of their operations, the extent of system setup and testing, and the impact the implementation will have on their operation.

ERP Implementation

Here is an outline of a common scenario in single-hospital ERP implementations.

The consultants warn of the consequences of not dedicating adequate resources.
Management publicly agrees but privately thinks the consultants are crying wolf.
Implementation fails or goes poorly.
Management claims “how could we have known?”

Don’t let this be you. The only thing to assume about the implementation is that it that it will be much more difficult than expected, it will take longer than you expected, and it will cost more than expected.

Like most other projects, the success of a software implementation will be based upon the skill of the people involved, training, planning, and the effort put forth. Plan to have the most knowledgeable employees heavily involved in the system setup and testing.

Testing Programs

Adequate time should be dedicated to make sure every aspect of every process is thoroughly tested. An example of a detailed testing program is listed below:

Does the purchase order [PO] receipt screen have all the information needed to perform the receipt such as vendor item number, item description, unit of measure?
What happens when we receive more than the PO quantity?
What happens when we receive less than the PO quantity?
What happens when we enter multiple receipts against the same line?
What happens if someone tries to change the PO quantity after we have entered a receipt?
What happens if one changes the PO quantity at the same time we are entering a receipt?
What happens when we reverse a receipt?
What happens when we reverse a receipt after it has been paid?
What happens if the ordered unit of measure is different from the stocking unit of measure?
What happens when we receive an early shipment?
What happens when we try to receive against a cancelled PO?
What happens when we change the receipt location?

After the system has been thoroughly tested, employee training begins. Remember, dealing with unexpected issues is the norm; you don’t also need to be training employees after the system is supposed to be operating.

Hands-On Training

The training should consist of hands-on training and include written procedures for the tasks performed. For most positions, make sure that each employee has entered the equivalent of at least a full day’s transactions during the training. Using an actual day’s transactions is a good way to make sure the variety of transactions an employee is likely to encounter have been experienced. The most common mistake made in training is a lack of adequate repetition. Just because someone was able to perform the task once, during a training session on a Saturday three weeks prior to “going-live” does not mean they will be able to perform the task with system start-up. If they have repeated the task many times over a series of training sessions, they are much more likely to remember how to do it.

Assessment

Watch the data. During and immediately after the implementation it is incredibly important to watch the data and make sure everything is working as planned. Monitor the status of orders, purchase orders, and delivery orders paying specific attention to “stuck orders” or other exceptions. Conduct some aggressive cycle counting of fast-moving items to make sure transactions are working correctly.

Conclusion

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Filed under: Information Technology | Tagged: david marcinko, David Piasecki, DME, durable medical equipment, ERP, HIT, HMMIS, hope hetico, IT, SCM, supply chain management, www.healthcarefinancials.com | 1 Comment »

Hospital Materials Management Information Systems [Part 1]

Posted on January 7, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Fundamentals of Inventory Software Selection

By David J. Piasecki; CPIM

By Hope Rachel Hetico; RN, MHA

By Dr. David Edward Marcinko; MBA

Understanding Strategies

Strategically, hospitals must exploit contemporary technologies and connectivity with suppliers and trading partners to:

improve patient care and safety,
increase efficiency,
drive down costs, and
optimize inventory levels.

Software Selection

Software selection and implementation services have become big business for consulting firms as well as the software vendors themselves. Even with outside assistance, selecting the right software for hospital operations and having a successful implementation can be an extremely difficult undertaking. Horror stories of failed enterprise resource planning (ERP) system implementations are unfortunately very common. Anyone who frequently reads business publications have read stories where large healthcare corporations, posting smaller than forecasted profits, cite problems associated with the implementation of a new software system as one of the causes. Whether these claims are legitimate or not is up to debate. What is true is that hospitals are highly dependent on information systems and failures in the selection and implementations of systems can result in anything from a minor nuisance to a complete operational shutdown.

Those unfamiliar with business inventory management software should be prepared to be bombarded with acronyms and buzz words. E-business, web-enabled, E-procurement, E-fulfillment, E-manufacturing, collaborative, modular, and scaleable are just a sampling of the terms used to describe (sell) hospital software inventory products.

Inventory Tracking Software

Healthcare enterprise inventory tracking software with implementation ranges in price from a few thousand dollars to millions. In fact, up until recently, if you were a medical clinic with annual revenues of less than $200 million, many of the top enterprise software vendors didn’t even consider you a potential customer. Fortunately, this arrogance has been tempered recently due to economic conditions (primarily the software vendors’ cash flow). Unlike five years ago, when the software vendors felt they held all the cards, today it is truly a buyer’s market. No matter how big or small an entity, many vendors will be vying for software dollars. That’s the good news. The bad news is that you must sift through all these products to find the one that best meets your business needs.

Process Definition

The most important part of the software selection process is defining the processes within your health organization and determining functionality that is critical to your medical operation. Many times clients get distracted by the bells and whistles and forget about their core healthcare business functions. As a healthcare entity in the DME distribution fulfillment business – focus on functionality related to order processing, as well as warehouse and transportation management. Be wary of the software vendor that claims packages that work equally well in all environments. Most software packages are initially designed with specific situations in mind; asking the vendor about their biggest customers will often give you an idea as to the type of operation the software was designed to work in.

Product Functionality

When you look at the detailed functionality of a product it will be important to have listed detailed functionality requirements of your healthcare operation. This is where hospitals often make mistakes by emphasizing functionality that they currently don’t have, but would like, and overlooking core healthcare processes that their current system handles well.

Example:

For example, if you are awestruck with functionality that allows remote access to a medical charting system from an Internet browser on an ambulatory device – and as a result – overlook critical functionality related to order entry or demand planning, you may end up with a system that provides great visibility to the fact that patient revenues are failing. Never assume a software package “must” be capable of handling something considered a standard function. Some examples of detailed functional requirements are as follows:

E-commerce capabilities
Multi-facility demand planning
Postponement and configure-to-order functionality
Forecasting and demand planning
Back-order processing
Lot or serial number tracking
Forward pick location replenishment
Batch or wave order picking
Returns processing
Back flushing DME inventory
Co-product processing
Outsourcing specific operations
Multiple stocking units of measure
Product substitutions
Blanket orders
Shipment consolidation
Multi-carrier rate shopping and manifesting
First-in first-out processing

Assessment

Don’t settle for “yes, we can do that” responses from the software vendor. It’s your responsibility to verify that not only can they do it, but also that they can do it to the level required. Ask detailed questions as to exactly how it works in their system. Look at the specific programs used to achieve the task and verify that the data elements required to achieve the task are present. Don’t allow the software vendor to sidestep your questions by retreating into obfuscating technical jargon

Conclusion

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Filed under: Information Technology | Tagged: CCHIT, david marcinko, David Piasecki, DME, ERP, HIT, HMMIS, hope hetico, Inventory Software, SCM, supply chain management, www.healthcarefinancials.com | 1 Comment »

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