BIG Inventory
Streamlining Hospital Inventory Processes

Proper management of hospital inventories is key to preventing product shortages, ensuring optimum usage of available resources, and delivering consistent care. In any healthcare setting, running out of medical supplies is not an option. With rising healthcare costs, it has also become critical for hospitals to account for the inventory at their disposal as any waste, evaporation (drop out of inventory), item misplacement, or expired goods can add up quickly and impact the bottom line. BIG Inventory helps hospitals resolve their inventory-related challenges with its proprietary inventory management software and on-site inventory services.

“We deliver top-notch service with a team of full-time, career minded professionals who have deep industry knowledge and conduct themselves with utmost professionalism in a hospital environment,” says Chuck Phillips, President & CEO of BIG Inventory.

BIG Inventory begins working closely with clients 30 days prior to performing the physical inventory and collects all relevant data from their systems. Once the data is thoroughly checked to remove duplications, packaging string errors, and other issues, it is loaded into BIG Inventory’s system to validate each entry and report on items that do not appear on the client’s item master.

During the periodic and perpetual inventory process, the BIG Inventory team utilizes its state-of-the-art software, BERTHA (Bringing Employees, Resources, and Technology to Hospital Audits), which allows users to scan and capture data from the supplies residing anywhere in a facility. The data is then transmitted to the company’s cloud servers in real-time. The team and other interested parties can validate the data against the client’s inventory data to ensure it is accurate and deliver the final reports quickly. They can also deliver supplemental reports, including a comparison with past inventory data to make sure all areas are covered.

“We’re more of a data processing company. We visit client facilities to perform physical inventories with an on-site project manager who collects data about each supply, which is then reviewed and verified by an off-site quality assurance monitor,” says Phillips.

BIG Inventory has created an anonymous database of over five million records, comprising vast inventory data, state contracts, federal contracts, and manufacturer data, which allows clients to check the best price for an item and how effective their vendors are at delivering appropriate pricing.

Using the data collected, BIG Inventory also helps clients identify low velocity items and better optimize their point-of-use inventories that are generally characterized by a lack of space to store critical medical supplies. It ensures that inventory is where it needs to be at any given moment – the basis of implementing an efficient supply chain management solution.

BIG Inventory has seen BERTHA work in many situations, especially when companies have tried to implement inventory services in the past, only to fail. Before becoming a devoted BIG Inventory client, an Illinois-based healthcare provider had tried solutions from several local inventory service providers with no success. The client had seen continuous failure every year except when BIG Inventory took over their inventory services. BIG Inventory’s team manipulated the data and tied it to the client’s supply sources for each area, marrying their perpetual inventory with their periodic inventory. No other service provider could offer them this level of service.

Inventory management plays a large role in the healthcare industry, especially now. The Covid-19 pandemic brought to light the fact that hospitals don’t have as much control over their inventory and supplies as they thought they did. With a powerful combination of people, software, and analytics, BIG Inventory delivers recommendations to ensure the right supplies are available when needed and facilitate better supply chain management.