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Chris Freitag

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Optimizing Inventory for Pharmacies

One of the biggest impediments for pharmacies is the lack of visibility in their inventories. What could be more frustrating than stocking supplies with less demand , or worse, no demand at all? Equally disconcerting is running out of an item in high demand , not with standing the regulation and security of controlled substances. The reason for all these obstacles is over-reliance on manual and paper-driven processes that not only adds significantly to inventory expense but also eats up pharmacists’ time, which could otherwise be spent delivering better patient care.

To that end, data can lend a helping hand to pharmacies, enabling them to eliminate guesswork and maintain optimal inventory levels for improved profitability through data- driven decisions. This is what Texas-based Supplylogix sets out to achieve through its Pinpoint suite of inventory management solutions, which leverages data to help pharmacist gain valuable insights and streamline their complete inventory management process. A McKesson Corporation subsidiary, the company’s solutions help pharmacist reduce costs, improve efficiency, and optimize their pharmacy supply chain. “Our solutions help pharmacies unlock valuable insights hidden within their existing data and empower pharmacy leadership to make meaningful supply chain decisions” states Nathan Chapman, Vice President and General Manager, Supplylogix.

Supplyogix’s ultimate aim is to help pharmacy chains capitalize on the inventory productivity using its highly advance data-driven SaaS platform. “Our goal is to help take the burden off of pharmacy staff from having to determine the right levels of inventory from for each location and allow them to free up time to spend with their patients” says Chapman.

 

Click here to read the article.

EasyBeingGreen

It’s Easy Being Green

I’m sure you can guess from the title what this post is about. Today we’re going to talk about greening the community pharmacy.

 

If you have multiple stores, using a software program like SupplyLogix is a no-brainer. The software automatically taps into your computerized inventory and usage at all your stores and then, for each store, populates suggested inventory transfer to use up the ‘crumbs.’ If you have a 100-count bottle with 10 left in it, you can transfer it to a store that will actually use the drug.

Without a program like SupplyLogix, it’s really just too unrealistic to be able to consistently move inventory between stores. I’ve tried with only two stores using a shared Google Sheets and it doesn’t work. It’s too time-consuming to constantly update it.

One of the chains I worked for used this program and we made a habit of preparing the items once a week to ship out to the other stores (be sure to check your state laws so you know they allow it) and it was an easy thing to add in our routine.

 

 

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Optimizing Your Pharmacy Inventory

Having the right medications in the right place and at the right time is at the center of every pharmacy practice. But with today’s skyrocketing drug costs, reduced reimbursements and heightened competition, we must start looking at that inventory differently. Rather than resigning to the fact that it’s simply the cost of doing business, you need to start considering it a manageable part of your working capital. That inventory is an investment, the bottles on the shelves represent real money and are likely the single largest expenditure your pharmacy has, often even greater than labor and facility costs.

Slow-moving inventory, or medications that can sit on the shelves until they expire, can end up costing significantly more than their retail value. Without an effective strategy, many pharmacies continue to automatically reorder inventory at the same levels without re-evaluating their movement.

In fact, most pharmacies use the applications in their pharmacy management systems to keep medications in stock at their current levels. When a prescription is filled, it’s tracked by the system and replaced on a one-for-one basis with the pharmacy’s next delivery from its distributor. That happens regardless of whether the replacement medication is needed that week, the following week, next month or next quarter. If demand for a certain product changes, it can take a few ordering cycles to identify the problem and make the necessary adjustments.

A better approach is employing tools to analyze prescription fulfillment trends in real time and forecast when the replacement medication is likely to be needed, along with current inventory levels and expiration dates of the current stock.

That way you can spend the money when it’s needed rather than having working capital sitting on a shelf in the form of a medication that may not be prescribed for a few months. Implementing inventory management software like that offered by Supplylogix can help you gain visibility into — and provide thoughtful management of — inventory purchasing habits across each and every pharmacy location. These tools can help pharmacies realize as much as a 35% improvement in inventory turns and minimize losses from unsaleable returns by as much as 25%.

Using the software to automatically group medication families into ranked categories based on their prescription volume, as well as the total dollar value, and the percentage of total output, gives you the data you need to answer key inventory questions across your organization:

  • Are you holding enough inventory in your fastest-moving drugs?;
  • Are you holding too much inventory in your slowest-moving drugs?
  • Are you still stocking drugs with little or no movement?

Effectively managing your inventory ordering process will allow you to id entify potential inventory surpluses. This gives you an opportunity to return stock to the distributor within the prestated policy guidelines to maximize refunds, or identify the minimum amount of a specific medication you need to have on hand at any moment without the risk of running short of expected demand. You may also be able to periodically adjust your spending on certain medications to take advantage of changes in quantity, availability, demand and market price.

Being able to see where your inventory dollars are spent in relation to the prescriptions you are filling lets you make data-driven decisions on the ordering process, spending appropriately on fast moving medications and scaling back on those that tend to sit unused. At the same time, you’re likely to increase the productivity of the inventory you do have on hand, better control your carrying costs to meet your financial goals and, most importantly, reduce the working capital needed to maintain optimal inventory levels.

 

Click here to read the article.

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Supplylogix to Showcase Enhanced Pinpoint Count at NACDS Total Store Expo in 2018

Las Colinas, Texas, August 23, 2018—Supplylogix is excited to announce two new product enhancements at National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) Total Store Expo 2018. These enhancements highlight an extensive investment in product innovation for the powerful suite of tools that enables pharmacies to maximize replenishment activities, increase efficiencies, and minimize losses from returns, thereby helping to lower operating costs.

Expanding on its industry-leading Pinpoint suite of solutions, Supplylogix will showcase an enhanced version of the Pinpoint Count software. Pinpoint Count is an easy-to-use, highly configurable inventory management tool that helps pharmacies handle the tasks associated with counting and organizing perpetual inventory across all prescription drug categories. This solution now offers more powerful reporting and filtering capabilities as well as other enhancements to track cycle counting activity, drive employee participation in counting activities, and balance workloads with flexible scheduling and configuration of cycle counts.

“Adding Pinpoint Count to a pharmacy’s toolset to manage perpetual inventory will help ensure the correct medications are being counted with dynamic search parameters and flexible configurations,” said Jody Harvey, vice-president, business development and account management, Supplylogix. “This software also helps streamline the cycle counting process and save time, facilitating real-time inventory adjustments that are directly applied to your pharmacy system.”

Supplylogix will also highlight its new Linking capabilities at this year’s NACDS Total Store Expo. The new functionality helps to ensure preferred generics are purchased for inventory replenishment. Linking provides chain pharmacies the ability to order the appropriate drug from a group of generics, within the same Generic Product Indicator (GPI), based on the chains’ warehouse formulary, wholesaler preferred formulary, or a combination of both.

Linking software recognizes the parent or primary generic and when managed, a Reorder Point (ROP) is assigned to the drug, significantly reducing the time needed to manage a preferred generics program. “This system helps give pharmacies fast and easy access to powerful inventory analytics, which will allow your team to make better informed inventory decisions,” said Harvey.

Supplylogix will showcase its industry-leading suite of solutions, including the newly patented Pinpoint Transfer inventory management software, at the NACDS Total Store Expo, August 26-27, at the Colorado Convention Center (Booth 117). NACDS Total Store Expo is the industry’s largest gathering of the most influential leaders and decision makers; attendees can learn how to further optimize inventory operations, increase profitability and explore complementary technology solutions offered by Supplylogix and McKesson. To schedule a meeting during the show, please contact Jody Harvey at Jody.Harvey@Supplylogix.com.

About Supplylogix

Founded in 2010, Supplylogix applications process millions of transactions every day on behalf of more than 12,000 national and regional retail pharmacies. Supplylogix is a high-growth software company that develops and delivers practical supply chain intelligence solutions for pharmacy and related businesses. Supplylogix, a division of McKesson Corporation, is based in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, and services a wide array of healthcare providers nationwide. For more information, visit supplylogix.com. Follow us on Twitter at @supplylogix.

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Supplylogix Earns New Patent for Proprietary Inventory Management Technology

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office awarded U.S. Patent No. 9,904,965 to Supplylogix, a McKesson Corporate business, for proprietary inventory management technology at the heart of Supplylogix’s Pinpoint Transfer®.

The patent is for a system and method that provides functionality allowing Supplylogix customers to transfer medication between locations based on demand. This demand is dynamically and automatically defined in a proprietary manner based on prescription medication dispensing history.

“We are committed to developing innovative, industry-leading technology that delivers practical supply chain intelligence solutions,” said Clay Courville, Vice President and General Manager of Supplylogix. “Recognizing our innovative culture, Supplylogix customers should expect even more exciting and new patented functionality in the future as we continue to help pharmacies successfully manage medications.”

Supplylogix is a trusted advisor and the national market leader in its industry, helping customers manage their inventory in more than 12,000 pharmacies. Supplylogix customers experience proven benefits in managing their inventory, including: reduced working capital; improved service levels; a reduction in returns; and increased inventory productivity. Supplylogix takes great pride in partnering with its customers to solicit feedback that drives product innovation and improvement. “By partnering with customers, we can ensure we meet their needs and deliver enhancements that they truly want,” said Courville.

“We’re excited about this new patent,” said Jody Harvey, Vice President, Business Development and Account Management. “It serves to protect our innovative technology and it validates our ongoing commitment to enhance our products and better serve our customers. Reducing returns, transferring medications to other stores, and reducing costs are all vital parts of improving business operations for our customers.”

For more information about the Supplylogix suite of products and services, please visit spplylgxprod.wpengine.com.

About Supplylogix

Founded in 2010, Supplylogix applications process millions of transactions every day on behalf of more than 12,000 national and regional retail pharmacies. Supplylogix is a high-growth software company that develops and delivers practical supply chain intelligence solutions for pharmacy and related businesses. Supplylogix, a division of McKesson Corporation, is based in Irving, Texas, and services a wide array of healthcare providers nationwide. For more information, visit supplylogix.com.

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