Inventory Management Made Simple with UCapIt

One of the greatest challenges today’s EMS professionals and pharmaceutical managers face is medical product supply management and security. In an EMS organization, it is imperative that systems are in place that not only saves you money but also saves you time, especially when lives are on the line. Many organizations across the United States have become creative and turned to UCapIt to help save them both time and money on EMS supply management.

“The cost reduction we realized once we had implemented IDS’ UCapIt solution is a big benefit to us,” says Rich Tvella of Mastic Beach Ambulance Company. “We spend less time doing the manual count and the paperwork to keep track of the physical inventory.” 

With UCapIt you can take back control of your inventory by providing a safer, smarter, and more secure way to accurately assess and track your employee’s usage. Through iQ Technology, our EMS supply vending machines and supply lockers maintain controlled access to pharmaceuticals and medical supplies, meticulously track inventory, and allow instant access to all records.

“UCapit’s reports tell me what I need to know, how many are expiring, where they are located and the name of the medication.  I really like that I can run the report for 90 or more days because I order replacement medications 3-4 months in advance, plus my regular stock…so I know I won’t run out.  Now instead of having to do a count by hand at the end of the month, I check them in when I receive them and simply run the reports I need.”

IDS’ UCapIt provides controlled supply dispensing solutions for emergency medical service organizations including hospitals and fire stations. IDS’ UCapIt solutions allow organizations to secure EMS and narcotics, restrict access by user credentials or product classification, track inventory in real-time, and maintain full accountability and compliance with FDA and DEA regulations.

iQ Technology, the brain behind the UCapIt system, allows EMS organizations to track inventory and alert managers when the supply is running low. This ensures that EMS organizations do not have to scramble to find the supply they need.

Tim Barnett of Kanawha County Emergency Ambulance Authority says, “Previously if a unit ran out of a specific supply, they would have to make a trip to central supply to restock. With the UCapIt vending machines and lockers in place, they have immediate access. Budget numbers indicate we’re under budget in medical supplies and medications compared to this time a year ago.”

Inventory can be managed anytime, anywhere with UCapIt and iQ Technology. Additionally, managers have the ability to see who is accessing what items, when and where they are being accessed. 

UCapIt allows you to be as transparent as you want within your organization. To find out more about the UCapIt EMS and medical inventory management solution, call 1-877-771-4446.

It’s Time to Take Back Control of Your EMS Equipment

In an emergency situation, EMS professionals need to be able to quickly access life-saving equipment and supplies. And, when every second counts, they do not have time to scour the supply closet, just to discover that the critical item they need is expired or out of stock. 

In order to comply with FDA and DEA federal guidelines and regulations, it is important for EMS professionals to be able to easily and accurately control who has access to what and then report on what was dispensed and the reason for the restock. This is especially important when it comes to controlled substances such as morphine or fentanyl. IDS’ inventory management solution for EMS professionals provides real-time accountability and streamlines this process.

A supply room closet just doesn’t cut it. When medication is accessible to multiple people, it is impossible to control who has access. With the UCapIt supply dispensers and supply lockers, you can put control and accountability back in your hands, ensuring that you are meeting the FDA and DEA guidelines.

There are multiple ways to identify your crew members to allow access to supplies and equipment with our EMS vending machines. Each method provides quick and controlled access to medical supplies, depending on your agency’s preference. Employees can be identified by either inputting a unique code on a pinpad, proximity, barcode, magnetic stripe or biometrics. As a manager, this will allow you to see who is accessing supplies, when they are accessing them and how much they are accessing through our proprietary iQ Technology smart inventory system.

iQ Technology is a web-based stock management software that provides real-time inventory reporting and inventory management. It allows you to see a number of reports about the items being dispensed such as a usage summary report, a transaction report and an inventory consumption report. Through iQ Technology, you will know where and when items are being dispensed, who is dispensing them and more. The system will allow you to optimize your par levels and order supplies before you are completely out, while also tracking the lot numbers and expiration dates.

You can never be too efficient when it comes to emergency situations. Let IDS provide an inventory management solution so you can focus on emergency response and patient care. Get started today by giving us a call at 1-855-570-2673.

The IDS System for Medical Supply Dispensing in Chesapeake

The Chesapeake Fire Department has implemented IDS’ secure, web-based system to dispense medical supplies for its team in order to increase their efficiency and decrease their tax dollar spend!

How does this medicine vending machine work, and how much will it cost taxpayers? While the city invested $85,000 to get the machine up and running, it has been determined that this initiative could actually save taxpayers thousands of dollars in the long run. The machine’s supplies are accessed by employees through scanning their department IDs and choosing the dispensable item via keypad selection.

The department’s previous system of an open closet approach for EMS inventory management was far less efficient: crews got supplies after sending an email and awaiting new deliveries. Additionally, restocking was estimated and often inaccurate. There were countless potential delays. Additionally, there were excess fuel costs because crews could only get supplies from one central supply station, no matter where they were based in the city.

Now things have changed.

“The IDS system is going to prevent stations and employees from hoarding supplies and thinking they may need more, while really they need less,” says Chris Bergeron of BoundTree Medical.

The implementation of IDS’ system at Chesapeake Fire Department, three years in the making, helps speed up the process of getting supplies and helps keep up with costs. The system provides info that will allow the fire department to use tax dollars more efficiently. This year alone, Chesapeake crews had over 27,000 emergency calls, of which 76% were EMS calls where medical supplies are used.

Now, the new dispensing machines can also help identify what specific items are needed for different emergencies, further increasing efficiency and preparedness for medical calls.

Watch the full video feature on this exciting new wave of medical supply technology here, and be sure to visit the IDS website to learn more about our controlled dispensing technology.

College Campus Offers Emergency Contraceptive Plan B Via Vending Machine

Biomedical vending machines are becoming increasingly common in healthcare settings around the country, the Student Government at the University of California in Santa Barbara are taking Medical vending machines to a higher level. As explained by Nathan Rubbelke, student government leaders at UCSB have approved the purchase of a medical contraceptive vending machine that will dispense condoms, lube, tampons, pregnancy tests, and the morning-after pill, Plan B. However, this action raises a few interesting questions, and students need to understand how this machine will sexual health on campus.

What Triggered the Installation of the Plan B Vending Machine?

College life is hectic, and accessing items for reproductive health can be challenging for students. Although many of these items are accessible through the Health and Wellness program at UCSD, students need a way to access these items on weekends. This medical vending machines will provide access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, which is excellent for students who may not be able to access in-office resources do to work or school schedules.

Without the machine, students who have unprotected sex early in the weekend, such as Friday night, would be unable to obtain Plan B from Student Health until Monday. By installing this machine, student government leaders also seek to resolve another problem. On occasion, nearby pharmacies and Planned Parenthood may run out of Plan B, and students need to have access to the contraceptive as soon as possible.

Is This the First Time Plan B Has Been Offered Through a Pharmaceutical Vending Machine?

In 2010, Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania installed a similar vending machines with the purpose of dispensing Plan B on campus. Little interest centered around the vending machine for two years, but the Food and Drug Administration began to look into the matter in 2012. Eventually, the FDA declined to take any action on the matter, and the college continued to sell Plan B from the vending machine.

What About Opposition to the Pharmaceutical Vending Machine?

There are opponents to the dispensing of Plan B in a vending machine. In fact, the president of the Anscombe Society at UCSB has expressed severe criticism over the very idea of installing a pharmaceutical vending machine with contraceptive items. While this sentiment emphasizes the group’s focus on maintaining sexual purity, students are already accessing Plan B through other measures, and this vending machine will simplify the needs of UCSB’s students who have been in the situation of finding an after-hours option for contraception.

The face of the pharmaceutical vending machine industry is changing. Once, mild pain relievers, mouthwash, and simple over-the-counter medications were available in vending machines. Now, female students can take a stronger role in ensuring their reproductive health with a medical vending machine, such as those designed by Intelligent Dispensing Solutions, to access over-the-counter Plan B when other means of obtaining the medication are unavailable.

Vending Machines Supplied With Breastfeeding Equipment

Vending machine technology has certainly come a long way in the last several decades. No longer are vending machines only designed to provide you with a quick snack in between meals, or something to drink when you’re thirsty at work or school. Medical vending machines and similar types of automated solutions are making people’s lives easier across a wide range of different industries on a daily basis. Case in point: a new type of vending machine is specifically designed to provide working mothers with the tools they need to breastfeed their children while on the job.

It’s a situation that is all too familiar to women who are trying to maintain a career and raise a family at the same time: they’re on the job and ready to breastfeed, only to realize that they’ve forgotten a storage bag or a valve or some other important item at home that morning in their haste. Their child needs to eat, but they don’t have what they need and find themselves in a tricky predicament.

Thanks to a new type of vending machine technology, these fears are well and truly a thing of the past. A vending machine that was recently installed at Johns Hopkins Hospital allows working mothers to purchase a wide range of different breastfeeding tools and equipment at a moment’s notice. It is the first of its kind, though it certainly will not be the last.

The breastfeeding equipment vending machine stocks everything that a mother would need to successfully breastfeed her child, from storage bottles to nipple cream to pump accessories and everything in between. The machine was created by Mega Stoltzfus, who is employed by Johns Hopkins in the Office of Work, Life and Engagement.

Stoltzfus indicated that inspiration hit her when she was walking through an airport and realized how far vending machine technology has come even in the last decade. As someone who previously needed to work odd hours and breastfeed to the job herself, she decided to work directly with a manufacturer to design a specialized vending machine solution for people like her.

Because the type of equipment that is being sold in the vending machine is considered to be an employee benefit, it is all available at a steep discount. Any mother who finds that she needs to use the machine can pay for her items using a debit or credit card – it really is that simple.

Working mothers who are not employed by Johns Hopkins won’t have to wait long to get in on this new technology. Other institutions around the country have already expressed interest in similar EMS supply vending machines of their own.

Source:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/maryland-family/now/bal-johns-hopkins-introduces-a-vending-machine-for-breastfeeding-mothers-20140710-story.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2708524/Vending-machines-containing-breastfeeding-equipment-rolled-Baltimore-hospital-attempt-cater-working-moms.html

Robot Inventory Drug Control at University Health Services

The pharmacy at Penn State University’s Student Health Center has employed a robot lovingly named “Rex” to do everything from count pills to fill prescription bottles by way of automated pharmaceutical inventory control.

Rex is officially known as a “collating control center robotic prescription-dispensing machine,” which is essentially an automated medical vending machine on a much larger scale. Doris Guanowsky, the senior associate director at University Health Services at Penn State, says that this is exactly the type of technological innovation that is allowing them to serve and care for a greater number of people with each passing day. Rex is currently being used to fill the prescriptions of employees, students, retirees and everyone in between.

Guanowsky indicated that it is not common for a university to have this type of technology at all, let alone working in the Student Health Center. However, the huge volume of patients and prescriptions that the Center is responsible necessitated this emphasis on the best that modern technology has to offer. Over the 2013 to 2014 season alone, University Health Services filled more than 163,000 prescriptions. To put that into slightly different terms, that equates to between 600 and 1,000 prescriptions each and every day.

Filling a prescription is a lot more than just putting pills into a bottle. Patients have to be communicated with, insurance claims need to be properly filed, labels need to be printed en masse and more. By automating a large portion of these processes and delegating that responsibility to Rex, the Center is not only able to keep costs down but can also turn over a higher number of prescriptions per day.

In many ways, a college pharmacy vending machine solution like Rex is powered on similar technology to the type that UCapIt has been incorporating into its solutions for over 80 years. UCapIt provides a wide range of different technological solutions that healthcare providers depend on daily. The CAP 5, for example, allows healthcare professionals to have complete control over the dispensing of the widest variety of products and medical supplies. The CAP 5 Refrigerated adds in the ability to control an environment’s climate, increasing the total number of items that can be stored based on those conditions.

One thing is for sure: between the solutions that UCapIt provides and the ways in which medical centers like the one at Penn State are embracing modern technology, everyone is benefiting – from patients to healthcare practitioners and everyone in between.

EMS Medical Supply Shortages: A Solution

Within the medical industry, pharmacy inventory is in a high-stakes gamble with supply shortages. A medical vending machine is important for local paramedics, and several townships have installed machines capable of dispensing drugs and equipment—rather than the traditional snack food and beverages.

The Columbus Dispatch has featured such inclusions within their depiction of a pharmaceutical vending machine providing innovative solutions for emergency medical supplies, combating cost increases with locally provided medication and pharmaceuticals.

Instant Supply and Quick Medical Inventory Solutions

Each EMS medical vending machine provides a variety of solutions for ailments acknowledged by the Food and Drug Administration, alerting paramedics when stocked equipment or drugs are in low supply. Additionally, soon-to-expire substances are returned to distributors—exchanged for credit.

Revolutionary Design

Controlled Access Pharmaceutical Dispensers utilize updated tracking and inventory tracking technology. This technology delivers a number of processes, optimizing the machine for use and substance maintenance:

  •         EMS supply tracking
  •         Instant medication expense recording
  •         Control and monitoring of inventory
  •         Usage transparency

Each Controlled Access Pharmaceutical Dispenser enables and empowers EMS professionals—granting them instant access of units on a 24/7 basis. Intensive identification protocols are utilized, securing the unit through several mechanisms:

  •         Proximity card reader
  •         Pin number
  •         Bar code identification scanner
  •         Biometric fingerprint reader
  •         Combination lock mechanism

Regulation and Industry Security

Every system withdraw is cataloged, regulated and time stamped through individual use. Authority level clearance is always tight, so industry regulations are kept intact throughout servicing. Additionally, every Controlled Access Pharmaceutical Dispenser may be streamlined to access email notifications—contacting management when controlled substances are dispensed.

Such boundaries are available with simple inclusions: internet access and a laptop. Managers across the world can access, manage and utilize a variety of Controlled Access Pharmaceutical Dispenser items, each located within a variety of locations.

Restock Awareness and Recording

Within the industry, up-to-date inventories are vital, and expenses within pharmaceutical realms have been reduced to mere hundreds of dollars where CAP machines are utilized—replacing the previous multiple-thousand-dollar expenses ambulances and hospitals normally incurred.

When authorized staff identification has been established, CAP machines may be programmed to provide a number of functions, including:

  •         Vehicle-specified access
  •         Incident-specific access
  •         Witness identification approval

Often, an EMS Manager is required during unlocking and dispensing, ensuring control over narcotic kits, oxygen, laptops and back boards. Where storeroom security and accountability are concerned, CAP machines effectively regulate usage, expiration rates and location.

A Future of Consistency

Pharmaceutical and emergency providers have thrived where Controlled Access Pharmaceutical Dispensers are provided—making alerts simple while managing administrative tasks. Individuals obtain customized usage reports, facilitating growth within each unit-equipped sector. Management and billing purposes are well-maintained, and reports are delivered daily, weekly or during custom timeframes.

Where inventory managers are considered, automatic tracking optimizes inventory logging, making instant recording much more than a primary function. The Controlled Access Pharmaceutical Dispenser will likely become an industry constant within the future, redefining EMS services while assisting patients on-site, with complete accessibility, regulation and ease-of-use for industry professionals. The medical industry appears bright, and the CAP Dispenser is paving the way.

Source:

https://www.boundtree.com/ucapit.aspx