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If you run a medical business, you’re likely to have stock in the form of medication and dressings for your patients to use if need be.

The last thing you’ll want is to run low or even run out completely because you might not be able to help your patients in the right way, and that could lead to problems with their health, not to mention issues with your reputation. If you can’t help people in the way you’re meant to, who’s going to choose to come to your medical facility when your competition doesn’t have those same problems? That’s why it’s so important to manage stock control properly in your medical business, and here are some of the things you can do about it.

Regular Audits

Although it might sound simple, that’s really the beauty of this idea, so it’s definitely something you’ll want to do on a regular basis – carry out stock audits. Ideally, you’ll already have a system in place where whoever has used or prescribed something will note down that they’ve used, and that should be a digital record that everyone can access (if it’s not, it’s time to make some changes to ensure it is in the future).

However, if there’s a human element involved, it’s possible mistakes can be made, which is why you’ll need to carry out regular audits as well to make sure the numbers match up. Relying on the records your team is keeping could lead to problems, and this simple yet effective backup plan can make all the difference.

Get An RFID Fridge

If you’ve got any medications that need to be kept at a specific temperature in a fridge, it’s best to look at RFID fridges rather than standard ones. That’s because RFID stands for radio frequency identification, and that essentially means that these fridges can stock take for themselves.

The fridges come with RFID tags which keep an eye on the items in the fridge and monitor what’s taken out – or put in. So you’ll immediately know if you’re running low on something, and you can place an order for more before you completely run out. Plus, these fridges can alert you when there’s a problem with the temperature, so you’re less likely to lose stock because of a malfunction of some kind.

Employee Training

Employee training is vital in any kind of business if you want to make sure everyone’s working as productively as possible, and the fact that it can increase employee satisfaction doesn’t hurt either – it’s far better to keep your old team than have to hire new people because that’s expensive and time-consuming.

The training your staff needs will depend on the business you’re running, and in a medical business, good stock control is definitely something you should be teaching your employees. Make sure they understand why stock needs to be counted and ensure they’re aware of (and understand) all the systems you have in place to keep control of your stock levels. Although the other backup plans we’ve mentioned will still be useful, good employee training starts everything off going in the right direction.

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