Analysis of Pharmacy and Laboratory Reagents Stock Management in a Portuguese Public Hospital: A Case Study

The current situation of healthcare units is characterised by the increasing cost of providing the respective care, the consequent deterioration of the financial situation, and the complicated and time-consuming processes. Together with rising demand, they may become factors contributing to a decrease in service demand. Due to this situation, more efficient and effective logistics and supply chain management are widely recognised as one of the main areas for improvement. To provide insight on which areas to improve, several objectives were looked at in this work, including the analysis of the methods and criteria for the selection of medicines in hospital pharmacies, the definition of obstacles to the rational management of stocks, and the analysis of historical data to forecast future demand for a Portuguese public hospital. The study revealed that some of the 1346 products present on the pharmacy's ERP do not have sufficient historical data to create an accurate forecast. In this context, and with a service level of 95%, 41% of products have a stock higher than what should be the maximum stock, amounting to approximately (sic) 147.908.87 in fixed assets, and 11% of products were at risk of being out of stock at the time. The importance of the evolution of the core information system of hospitals was at stake, ensuring the technological sustainability of the ongoing digital transformation, alignment with ICT rationalisation measures, improvement of customer service, and improvement of the quality of information available to the user.