Mastering Inventory Management for MedTech with Salesforce Health Cloud

Author

Jami Venkat Sai

May 9, 2024

In the ever-evolving landscape of healthcare, the MedTech sector plays a pivotal role in delivering innovative solutions that enhance patient care and streamline medical processes. One aspect that often goes unnoticed but is critical to the efficient functioning of this sector is inventory management. In the era of Health Cloud technology, effective inventory management has become a game-changer, ensuring seamless operations, reducing costs, and ultimately improving patient outcomes.

Inventory Challenges faced by MedTech Companies

Proper inventory management is like the backbone of the healthcare industry, ensuring everything needed is in place for essential functions to work seamlessly. Medications, vaccines, diagnostic tools, and even everyday items like paper and printer ink need to be easily found, tracked, invoiced correctly, and always available. Keeping track of inventory is crucial for healthcare to function smoothly. It’s not just about having enough Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), especially evident from shortages during the recent pandemic.

Hospitals and clinics need to make sure vital items like medicines and supplies are always on hand without having too much stock to avoid extra expenses. Keeping detailed records for rules and regulations is a must, including tracking lot numbers and expiration dates. It’s crucial to find the right balance between having enough supplies and sticking to the budget for smart financial management in healthcare.

Salesforce Health Cloud Solutions for MedTech

Inventory management in the MedTech sector of the Health Cloud is like having a smart organizer for medical stuff. Imagine a big store that has lots of different tools, devices, and supplies used in healthcare.

In the field of MedTech – “selling medical devices to Providers”, sales reps often face challenges in staying competitive and managing hospital visits. Salesforce Health Cloud, a specialized CRM platform for healthcare industry, is designed to assist MedTech sales reps in overcoming these challenges:

Health Cloud enables MedTech sales rep to easily track product information, inventory levels, and availability across different locations.
Health Cloud helps sales reps prior to going on hospital visits by ensuring the availability of specific medical devices for scheduled procedures.
MedTech Sales rep can use Health Cloud to manage surgical case visits efficiently. They can check product availability, record product consumption during the visit by scanning barcodes, and capture relevant information electronically, such as billing authorizations.
Health Cloud’s Intelligent Sales feature plays a crucial role in increasing productivity onsite, allowing reps to complete necessary tasks, manage field inventory, and ensure the success of each visit.
Health Cloud streamlines the sales process, helping MedTech sales reps to capture data, manage inventory, and enhance overall efficiency in their interactions with clients.

Real Case Scenario:

The sales rep at Medtronic Laboratories, a pacemaker manufacturer, aims to efficiently handle Mayo Clinic’s inventory. This involves keeping track of the quantity and availability of pacemakers at Mayo Clinic. By managing the inventory, the sales rep ensures that Mayo Clinic always has an adequate supply of pacemakers, facilitating smooth transactions and meeting the clinic’s needs promptly.

Step-1: Creating data for the Hospital and MedTech sector using standard objects of Health Cloud.

Henry, the admin at Medtronic Laboratories, must add data about clients, locations, products, and inventory so sales reps can use Health Cloud.

John Smith is a sales rep at Medtronic Laboratories, a med tech company that sells surgical devices to hospitals and clinics. One of its clients is Mayo Clinic. John Smith often visits William, a doctor at Mayo Clinic, to sell pacemakers.

Step-2: Create Accounts, Contacts, and Locations in the health cloud.Henry creates an account for Mayo Clinic, the client’s hospital that John would be visiting.

Go to the Related tab of the StayHealthy Hospital account page.
In the Contacts section, click New.
Select Business.
For Salutation, select Dr.
For First Name, enter William.
For Last Name, enter Paul.
Click Save.

Next, Henry must add location data for the hospital and inventory.
Here’s what Henry does to add locations.

From the App Launcher, go to Locations and click New.
For Location Name, enter Medtronic Laboratories.
For Location Type, select Warehouse.
Select Inventory Location.
Under Driving Directions, enter 840 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA 94103.
Enter 37.772591 in the Latitude field.
Enter 122.404437 in the Longitude field.
For Time Zone, select (GMT+12:45) Chatham Daylight Time (Pacific/Chatham).
Click Save & New to add an account location.
For Location Name, enter Mayo Clinic.
For Location Type, select Truck.
Deselect Inventory Location if it’s selected.
Click Save.

Step-3: Set Up Products and Inventories

Since John sells pacemakers to StayHealthy Hospital, Henry adds information about the device and its price to Health Cloud.

From the App Launcher, go to Products, and click New.
For Product Name, enter Pacemaker.
For Product Code, enter PP1710.
Select Active.
Deselect Serialized. A product is marked serialized when you want to track the different parts that constitute the make of an item.
Click Save.
On the record page for your new product, go to the Related tab, and click Price Books.
Click Add Standard Price.
Select Standard Price Book for Price Book.
For List Price, enter 6000. The org’s default currency is set to USD, which is applied here.
Click Save

Leroy needs to track the inventory of pacemakers, its usage, and movement. Here’s how Soumodip adds inventory data.

From the App Launcher, go to Product Items, and click New.
In the Product Name field, search for and select Pacemaker, the product you’re creating an inventory record for.
In the Location field, search for and select Medtronic Laboratories, the location you created for the product’s inventory.
In the Quantity on Hand field, enter the actual quantity available for that inventory. Soumodip enters 5.
Under Quantity Unit of Measure, select Each.
Click Save

The Product Fulfillment Location object associates’ sales reps with the inventories they own and the accounts they are responsible for. Henry creates a product fulfillment location to associate John with the inventory of pacemakers at Medtronic Laboratories.

Conclusion

In this real case scenario, Medtronic Laboratories, a pacemaker manufacturer, uses Health Cloud to manage its inventory and sales processes efficiently. Henry, the admin, creates accounts, contacts, and locations for Mayo Clinic, one of their clients, in Health Cloud. He also sets up products, such as pacemakers, and adds inventory data, tracking the quantity and movement of pacemakers at Medtronic Laboratories.

By using Health Cloud’s standard objects and features, Medtronic Laboratories can ensure that sales reps like John Smith have the necessary information to manage Mayo Clinic’s inventory effectively. This helps in maintaining smooth transactions and meeting the clinic’s needs promptly, ultimately benefiting both Medtronic Laboratories and Mayo Clinic.