In May of this year (2019) it was reported that public hospitals in Brasília – Federal District (capital of Brazil) – had some of their elective surgeries canceled due to the lack of surgical gloves.
At the time of the incident, the authorities declared that the situation occurred due to a problem of supply of stocks, while the syndicate of the doctors of the Federal District said that surgeons were needing to use procedure gloves in an “improvised” way, which is extremely inadvisable.
Surgical gloves are a category of procedure gloves that goes through the sterilization process, to avoid any type of contamination of the patient, since they are intended for extremely invasive and risky procedures. For this reason, in the case of Hospitals brasilienses, the failure in the planning of the storage sector puts at risk the lives of countless patients and also of the professionals involved.
With this in mind, the annual planning of the inventory of gloves and other essential materials in hospitals and clinics should be carried out in a serious and judicious manner, preventing other cases such as that of the Federal District from repeating themselves.
How to perform effective planning for your stock in 2020?
Inventory planning and control is a strategic attitude to meet everyday demands and needs. Whether in a large hospital, or in a small clinic, it is critical for all activities to be managed in the best way.
Thus, it is possible to predict demand, prevent crises such as that of hospitals in Brasilia, and avoid problems with the lack of essential products. That is, adequate inventory management allows to predict purchasing needs, reduce losses by maturity or waste of material, and setbacks that impair the full operation of your establishment, in addition to helping to reduce costs.
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Keep the physical space organized!
This will facilitate day-to-day operations and the location of materials, and make you sure which materials are present, which are missing, and what is being used the most (which contributes to future planning).
An important tip is to create an efficient system that identifies inventory sectors, separates products by type, size, purpose, and other markings. This prevents errors in product count, input, and output.
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Perform demand projection.
Use the history of previous years and months. During the holidays, for example, the number of accidents of all kinds skyrocket in virtually all cities in the world, especially in the largest capitals and metropolises. This factor greatly increases the required demand for all types of procedure gloves and other hospital products at this specific time of year.
By analyzing the use in previous years, you can check the amount of material that was required in the period, the increase or decrease of these usage rates over the years, among other factors, and thus design the amount that will be required in stock at each time of the year.
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Take an inventory.
It will be essential for planning and controlling your inventory. With it it is possible to count registration and categorization effectively. With inventory you can have a more precise control of the material present in stock.
Always remember that the quantity of each product present in stock must be balanced. Both lack and excess are harmful, as they can cause the postponement of important procedures (which in the case of the hospital area can cause even the worsening or death of a patient) or the loss of products by expiration of validity.
Read also: Why bother with the validity of gloves?
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Choose your suppliers well!
This is essential to the success of the job. When choosing your supplier, the main item to take into consideration is whether it is responsible with the deadlines, documentation and quality of the products you are purchasing.
Never let the price be the main guide because, often, the cheapest can present several problems such as delays in delivery, problems with documentation, questionable quality, among others. In the end, this could bring much more spending and headaches to your management.
Kevenoll products have all the legal certifications and documentation that guarantee our customers products with quality and efficiency.