It’s that time of year again, time for orthopedic professionals across the world to finalize their annual inventory plan. As the industry starts to see the light at the end of the dark COVID-19 tunnel, experts are expecting both inventory and revenue growth in the 2022 global orthopedic market. During the drastic decline of orthopedic sales in 2019 and 2020 the market declined by more than $5 billion, according to OrthoWorld’s The Orthopedic Industry Annual Report, mostly due to people deciding to put off their less threatening orthopedic treatments. However, those trends are expected to change. OrthoWorld experts forecast the 2022 fiscal year orthopedic sales to reach up to more than $56 million, compared to the low 2020 volume of $47 million. Orthopedic surgeons across the globe are now preparing their stock management system to reflect these growing numbers, but the age-old challenge of managing expired and lost inventory still remains.
As ortho surgeons are acutely aware, the patients who delay the care they need will often see their symptoms worsen over time. Since the pandemic started, many of the world’s most vulnerable groups have put off orthopedic treatment due mainly to cost. The American Medical Association reports that medical practice costs have risen over 50% in the last decade, far exceeding the price index for consumers. Now, professionals in orthopedic medicine are walking a tightrope between maintaining the optimal level of customer service and pricing out their patients. This battle is constantly raging in the back of doctors around the globe, especially during the time of the annual inventory evaluation. Based on the uncertain times ahead of us it is more important than ever to optimize your stock control technology now.
Streamlining your inventory process is possible, with a system that can count and reconcile inventory in real time, that system is the state-of-the-art inventory process built into WebOps OnHand cloud-based technology. The lost, mismanaged, and expired inventory of the past can finally stay in the past. WebOps OnHand targets two main pain points that every orthopedic company continues to face. Let’s walk through just how easy the OnHand software is to use in a real-life setting.
When speaking to orthopedic professionals on what tools used for inventory management they would find most beneficial, the answers we received were actually quite simple. Most agreed that an easy to read and highly visible way to identify inventory was most important. WebOps OnHand provides just that, once inventory is scanned the previous scan is automatically uploaded and compared to view the variance against the safety stock level. Users may also load the catalog of multiple vendors at once, so they are not forced to scan each piece of inventory. More details about any SKU can be found just by clicking on the Catalog # or GTIN. This is possible because our software is integrated with the GUDID
When developing WebOps OnHand our software engineers created a quality alert system equipped with a full movement history to make it even easier for our clients to audit their inventory at any point in time. With our technology, users can plan in advance how to best utilize soon-to-be-expired inventory thus minimizing the expense on lost inventory and the risk of utilizing expired inventory on a patient. Users can also set “reorder” points based on a minimum on hand requirement, once set the reorder quantity will supply itself, saving users precious time. As mentioned previously, sales in orthopedics are expected to rise this year and as a result the common solution of just lowering stock levels will undoubtedly lead to the orthopedic industry being ill prepared for when the kit is ultimately needed. However, the opposite can always be true.
The orthopedics industry wastes tens of millions of dollars every year on unused inventory. If you keep an eye on orthopedic news, you will read that one of the number one stressors is inventory management. The days of stuffing inventory in the storage closet until it is finally needed and using an excel sheet or, God forbid, pen and paper to manage the change in stock is over. You can guarantee the orthopedic companies who are going to surpass the 2022 orthopedic sales forecast are going to be using a 21st century RFID compatible inventory management system like WebOps OnHand.
Speed up your processes by using integrated barcode scanners to quickly receive inventory into your warehouse or consignment location. Whether it is a 1D, 2D or GS1 compliant barcode, by scanning using barcodes, inventory allocation is done quickly and precise.
When an implant is placed in the patient, easily capture what type of procedure it was, where it was implanted and the Record ID of the patient it was implanted in. Share this data internally or share it with your supplier and manufacturer partners to look for trends and product utilization rates.
The WebOps Dispensary App stores all attributes about a specific item including current location, department, cost to hospital and date received. Additionally you can include a “Due Back Timer” to help flag items that have been checked out but not returned in the required amount of time.
The WebOps Case Scheduling tool allows for Vendor Reps, Customer Service or a 3rd Party tool to create a surgical case in the WebOps Logistics Platform. With built in physician preference cards and product type dropdowns, the app cuts down on mistakes while speeding up the request process.
With the WebOps Logistics core platform, you can easily see requests for loaned inventory, allocate and ship sets, and receive the product back in after surgery using our processing screen and RFID capabilities. Additionally with our “Available-to-Promise” feature, Ops Staff and Sales Reps can get immediate feedback whether inventory will be available at time of request.
