Advances in Inventory Management

Panelists discuss a new inventory management system from HOYA Surgical Optics.

Dr. Koch: There are probably as many ways to handle inventory in an ASC as there are people sitting at this table. Let's discuss what's available, what's new and what's still on the horizon.

Dr. Tyson: Inventory control is an important aspect of maintaining profitability in an ASC. You can lose money if purchasing is mismanaged. Even a bottle of propofol, for example, if it is ordered from the wrong vendor, can be costly.

Dr. Patterson: I am the only surgeon in a small surgery center, and I operate 1 day a week. One staff person is responsible for checking inventory, usually at the end of the week, against the list of patients scheduled for surgery the following week and making sure everything is in order. This works for us now, but it would be nice to have a better way.

Mr. Sheffler: We have an accounting system that tracks our inventory. It identifies slow-moving items, such as a keratome that a surgeon no longer uses or an overabundance of sutures, so we can decide whether or not we should return them. Ten glaucoma shunts tucked away in a forgotten drawer can amount to $5,000 or more. Once we instituted an inventory control system and identified and returned excess supplies, our inventory costs dropped by about $150,000.

Dr. Tyson: Inventory management is becoming a much more common problem in ASCs, and not only with glaucoma shunts. If a couple of premium lenses go missing, so does your profit.

Advanced RFID Inventory Management

Dr. Koch: HOYA offers the Smart Automated Inventory Management (SAMI) System to help us manage our IOL inventory. Dr. Tyson, you have the SAMI System in your practice. Please give us an overview. What does SAMI do? How does it work?

Dr. Tyson: The SAMI System provides automated lens reordering and real-time, automated inventory management. Most of us have already had experience with the technology employed by the SAMI System. It utilizes small radio frequency identification (RFID) devices, similar to those used on clothing in stores to monitor an item's whereabouts.

The SAMI System reads the RFID micro-tags on boxes of IOLs through a “smart” cabinet that receives and records the information. Not only does the cabinet register whether or not the lens is inside, but it also knows the serial number and power of the lens. The system includes an RFID reader that can be used to scan boxes and verify lenses for check-in and check-out.

Dr. Koch: The SAMI System scans inventory every 18 minutes and provides feedback to the computer, including lens powers and serial numbers. When a lens is removed from the cabinet, within 18 minutes, its absence is recorded. The computer will eventually ask, “What happened to this lens? Was it put in a patient? Was it sent back? Did the sales representative take it? Did you waste it? Was it destroyed?” It helps you keep track of every lens.

Dr. Tyson: The beauty of this system is how much staff time it saves. The SAMI cabinet knows what's there, what's not there and what needs to be reordered, so my staff does not have to manually count, record and reorder. In addition, its utility isn't limited to IOLs. The system will track any items that have micro RFID tags.

Dr. Koch: The SAMI System has brought inventory management from the clipboard era into the electronic era. We have more than 1,000 lenses in inventory. In the past, we had to wait for a sales representative to come in with a bar coder every 3 months to check our inventory. Inevitably, they would find lenses missing and have to charge us for them. We knew we didn't lose those lenses. It was a problem. Now, every 18 minutes, we know exactly what is in stock, and everyone is in total agreement. It's been a tremendous step forward in managing inventory.

SAMI Facilitates Ordering

Dr. Koch: If you have ever observed your staff order intraocular lenses, you know it can take 3 to 5 minutes per lens. With the SAMI System, a lens can be ordered in 2 or 3 seconds. When the bar is passed over the spot scanner, the computer asks, “What do you want to do? Reorder the lens?” And it's done.

Dr. Tyson: Another benefit is that this system eliminates errors. In the past, after surgery, a staff member would take the sticker from the IOL box and affix it to a piece of paper. At the end of the day, we would have all these stickers on the paper and then fax them to the company to order a fresh supply. Even with such a simple system, errors could be made during order entry at the manufacturer's office. Then we would have to deal with the inefficiency of correcting those errors. With the SAMI System, everything is digital. What goes in is what comes out, and transcription errors are avoided.

Dr. Koch: Problems also can occur when the number of items in a shipment isn't the same as those listed on the packing slip. If the shipment is short and the discrepancy goes undetected, you would be billed for lenses you never received. The SAMI System is quite a step forward because lenses are scanned when we receive them, and we know exactly what is there. The computer acknowledges and confirms that what we have is what the company thinks we have. It eliminates confusion and error.

Dr. Waltz: In our practice, we produce monthly and annual reports of IOL usage by surgeon, which is a time-consuming task. One of my hopes is that somehow the SAMI System can be combined with an EMR package like the iMedicware EMR system. One creative application would be to put micro-tags on patients' ID bracelets and install readers at every doorway in the ASC to evaluate patient flow in an automatic fashion.

Dr. Koch: Combining the SAMI System with an EMR system would be a benefit to all of our ASCs.