Study: Computer tracking of hospital stock adds savings

A study by the University of Arkansas found that hospitals can reduce costs by implementing computer management systems that track inventory.

Health-care officials can scan inventory and collect data using systems similar to what retail stores use, said researchers with the UA Center for Innovation in Health Care Logistics. The data can then be used to forecast purchasing.

“The development and adoption of the methodologies used within the case study by the health care industry can result in higher fill rates, fewer back orders, higher inventory turns and decreased overall health care inventory costs,” according to the study.

Electronic labels similar to bar codes convey information such as usage, quantity and location of specific inventory, said Edward Pohl, a professor with UA’s College of Engineering.

“From the forecasting prospective, when an item is used, it gets scanned.” That scanned information is tracked in the computer and can help tell inventory managers such things as whether an item “is no longer sitting on the shelf,” Pohl said. “As soon as something is used, we can put the order in.”

The study tracked operating-room inventory at three hospitals in the Mercy Health System. It followed the use of 143 items at Mercy Hospital Fort Smith, 115 items at Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City and 152 items at Mercy Hospital Springfield, Mo.

The data were collected for 578 days from Oct. 1, 2010, to April 30, 2012.

According to the study, forecasting improved on 61 percent of all items tracked at Fort Smith, 65 percent tracked at Oklahoma City and 71 percent at Springfield.

Also, for cost-saving analysis, the study focused on 45 items that were tracked at all of the hospitals. On the basis of those 45 items, it could compare monetary savings from hospital to hospital. The study showed that the Fort Smith hospital would save $29,760, the Oklahoma City hospital would save $36,058 and the Springfield hospital would save $67,789.

Manuel Rossetti, associate department head of the Department of Industrial Engineering, said the results could mean lower health-care costs.

“We think that we could generalize these results across other hospitals,” Rossetti said. “We looked at one particular hospital network, and we think there is opportunities for lots of hospitals to do these things overall.”

Pohl said the study looked at costs associated with time and space needed to hold supplies. He said some medical inventory has expiration dates, and an oversupply could be costly for the hospital.

“Sometimes what will happen is that an item is not in the operating room, but there may be 50 of it on another floor,” Pohl said.

Pohl said researchers gathered information manually for the study. However, he said, it is a time-consuming process and a computer system would be needed to gather the data on a regular basis.

Purchasing the technology can be costly, Pohl said, but hospitals can reduce costs significantly by making the upgrades.

“There is an upfront cost, but over time you will recover that,” Pohl said.