Pharmacy Inventory Management

Types of Stores

• Linen stores, Stationary Stores, Dietary stores, Engineering and Maintenance stores, and Stores with Special Storage Requirements

Stores with Special Storage Requirements

• Inflammable Store, Corrosive Items Store, Medical Gas Store, Quarantined Item Store, Non-Conformance / Condemned Item Store

Inventory Control

• A scientific system to decide how much to order, when to order, and how often to order, ensuring the availability of vital and essential drugs while minimizing costs
• Functions of Inventory Control:
  • Maintaining an optimum level of idle resources at the least possible cost
  • Providing maximum supply service with maximum efficiency and optimum investment
  • Minimizing inventory costs and facilitating purchasing economies
  • Eliminating duplication in ordering
  • Better utilization of available stocks
  • Providing a check against the loss of materials
  • Enabling management in cost comparison
  • Locating and disposing of inactive and obsolete store items

Methods of Inventory Control

• ABC Analysis
• VED Analysis
• FSN Analysis
• Economic Order Quantity (EOQ)

ABC Analysis

• Categorizes goods into three categories, A, B, and C, based on their revenue
• A: Most important goods, 10% of drugs, 70% of total cost
• B: Moderately necessary goods, 20% of drugs, 20% of total cost
• C: Least essential goods, 70% of drugs, 10% of total cost
• Based on Pareto's Law, where 20% items account for 80% of total cost annually

ABC Analysis Categories

Class A

• Most essential goods with the highest value
• 20% of products, 80% of revenue generation
• Small category with minimal goods, but maximum revenue

Class B

• Slightly higher value than Class C
• 30% of goods, 15% revenue generation
• More in number, but less in utility

Class C

• More in numbers, but least valuable
• 50% of stock, 5% revenue generation

VED Analysis

• Based on the criticality of an item in healthcare service
• V: Vital items, without which the hospital cannot run healthcare service (e.g. Adrenaline injection, steroid preparations)
• E: Essential items, without which a hospital can function but may affect quality of services (e.g. Life supporting items such as transfusion fluids)
• D: Desirable items, unavailability of which will not interfere with the functioning of the hospital (e.g. Aspirin, other analgesics, vitamins, enzymes)

FSN Analysis

• Classifying items in stock based on their frequency of issue/consumption