Healthcare supply chains have made impressive strides in recent years, especially when it comes to streamlining procurement and managing storeroom inventory. But there’s a critical weak spot that many hospitals still struggle to address:
What happens to supplies after they leave central inventory?
If your answer is, "It depends who remembered to reorder," you're not alone.
Most materials management systems are great at tracking what's on the shelf. But once a box of gloves or IV tubing leaves the storeroom for a nursing unit or the OR, visibility is often lost. Supplies are handed off to clinical teams and, in many hospitals, the inventory trail ends there.
That means no real-time data on usage. No automated replenishment. And a lot of time spent walking the halls, clipboard in hand, checking what's running low.
Doug Van Houten, strategic consultant at Multiview and former healthcare materials manager knows this scenario all too well. "When supplies are expensed to departments, you're flying blind unless you have some sort of automated system tracking what gets used," he says. "Otherwise, you're relying on staff to manually trigger replenishment or report usage, whether that is clinical or materials team members."
And when you're working with limited staff and tight margins — as many rural hospitals are— that lack of visibility isn't just inefficient. It can be risky.
Manual inventory processes might get the job done, but they come at a price:
More importantly, the lack of data limits your ability to plan, forecast, and negotiate effectively. If you don’t know what’s being used where and how often, it’s nearly impossible to optimize.
Fortunately, hospitals don’t have to settle for the blind spots. Integrated systems like Pyxis cabinets or PAR Excellence scales can track inventory usage in real-time at the department level. Staff pull supplies, and the system automatically logs the change—no clipboard required.
"These systems give you perpetual inventory tracking across the entire facility," says Van Houten. "You can see how many of a certain item are in the ER, OR, or med-surg at any given time. It also speeds up reordering, because the system can generate a pick list or PO automatically."
Multiview ERP integrates directly with both Pyxis and PAR Excellence. That means usage data flows back into your ERP — so you don’t just know what's in the storeroom. You know what's everywhere.
While automated systems do come with upfront and maintenance costs, the long-term benefits often outweigh them, especially for organizations trying to do more with less:
“People often focus on revenue growth, but cutting supply-related expenses can deliver outsized impact,” says Van Houten. “If your profit margin is 10%, saving $1,000 on inventory waste or process inefficiency is like generating $10,000 in new revenue. Whether it’s reducing product outdates or streamlining how supplies move, those savings go straight to the bottom line.”
For small or rural hospitals, the ROI may depend on patient volume and department structure. But even without full automation, the key is data. Materials teams that use ERP reporting tools to track departmental spend, turnover rates, and replenishment cycles are better equipped to manage inventory strategically.
So what can you do if your hospital isn’t ready for full automation yet?
Whether you're running a cutting-edge system or still relying on spreadsheets, the goal is the same: maintain control and clarity across the entire supply chain.
Because in healthcare, inventory isn’t just about what's in stock. It’s about what you can see, what you can track, and what you can act on.
And that starts after the storeroom door.