Inventory

Dear CP, 
Honest question, but please post anonymously if you are able... In what universe is it more cost effective to leave open bottles of medicine on the shelf until they expire simply because they are non-preferred? I cannot see how this is more profitable than using the drugs already on hand.


CP
Good question. Here are my two cents.
I cannot understand why/how a company would not want to decrease its inventory by dispensing all of its partial inventory. Everywhere I have worked, I have been able to dispense a partial/completion to remove these little bastard open bottles from my shelves. If your company does not, why not?

I worked for an independent and discussed the inventory issue with her. At one point she had 3 open bottles on her shelf, each one contained 10 tablets. There is no way to properly dispense these to the patient. (Can't do 3 partials on a fill.) Had she performed a partial/completion when the new NDC arrived each time, this would not be an issue. Instead, she has 3 open bottles that are eating up her inventory.
Another company has individual stores with over $1 million in EXCESS inventory. Some of it is partial and non-preferred bottles. If the company took time to reallocate this inventory (or just dispense it) instead of letting it expire, they could afford to hire 7 pharmacists; just based on the inventory at this one store. (Let that sink in for a moment.)

Yes, the reality today is that companies do not make deals with the wholesalers like we used to do. Add in temporary (and long-term) backorders and we sometimes have 7 or 8 NDCs on the shelf for any given product. It's dead inventory unless/until we get it again.

Why is there not a way to use this effectively? Why would we want to allow these products to die? We already paid for them. It's like accidentally buying brown eggs instead of white and allowing them to go bad in your fridge, or just tossing them altogether. You've already paid for them. It is literally throwing money away to not use them.

The only answer I can offer is time. It takes longer to do the right thing than the easy thing.

What say you?