Inventory management of compounded sterile preparation areas

The benefits of good inventory management on operating costs and profits are often underestimated in the fiscal operation of a hospital pharmacy. This effect is even more pronounced when compounding sterile preparations (CSPs) for i.v. use, the cost of which tends to be significantly higher than that of oral medications. Substantial savings can be realized through proper management of inventory levels and drug order quantities. An ideal system would have an efficient ordering system, decrease inventory-carrying costs, and demonstrate optimal use of storage space for drugs. Inventory management processes have been previously described with a variety of systems and associated results. One automated inventory-ordering system was reported to decrease inventory cost by $300,000.1 Numerous other inventory management systems that use some form of automation that have resulted in cost savings on the pharmacy inventory have been described.2–5 Duke University Hospital is a 954-bed, tertiary care teaching facility. The department of pharmacy consists of a staff of 100 pharmacists and 120 technicians. The sterile preparations cleanroom (SPC) of the department processes about 2000 compounded doses daily and stocks about 330 drugs in its inventory. Because i.v. drugs are significantly more expensive than other drugs, the SPC independently evaluated the cost of its inventory and ways to manage the inventory in a cost-effective manner.