Utilizing abc and ved analyzes in inventory management in hospitals: An application at x hospital

Business units need various materials in order to continue their activities. Effective materials management processes in procurement of these materials will benefit business units in order to gain competitive advantage and maximize their profit. Material management efficiency increases through classification of needed materials. It is very challenging to conduct requirements assessment, purchasing, inventory management, and warehousing functions within the framework of identical policies. Therefore inventory classification becomes an important stage of materials management. Besides hospitals serve the society by providing healthcare services, they are very large business units in structural manner. Good management of inventory management processes along with materials management process and many other business functions make it possible to sustain these large structures. Main reason for hospitals to carry inventories is providing best services to their patients. Costs related to these inventories constitute a significant part of hospital expenses. Most important goal of inventory management in hospitals is to provide best services to patients while reducing inventory costs. Therefore efficiency gained in inventory management would help to decrease inventory expenses significantly. Inventories must be classified, and control and order processes must be conducted according to this classification in order to manage inventory efficiently. In inventory classification inventory costs based ABC analysis and VED analysis which is used in hospitals can be used. ABC+VED matrix method, which considers both costs and importance levels of inventory items, vii can also be used. In this manner, analyzes conducted in this study aimed towards to classify inventory in the medical consumables warehouse of a public hospital to start inventory management efforts. Inventory items were classified into three main classes by establishing ABC+VED matrix. It was determined that implementing a firmer inventory management to 353 inventory items in the first group will bring together better control of 78,88% of inventory expenses while forming a structure in which importance level of inventory items from the point of hospital activities will not generate any problems. Keywords: Materials Management, Inventory Management, ABC Analysis, VED Analysis, ABC+VED Matrix, Hospitals