Out of the composite shade, three boxes of gloves spare
A nurse opens the drawer for a particular composite shade or impression material and finds the last one was used yesterday. Someone rings the supplier for a next-day delivery. Meanwhile the store cupboard has three boxes of a size nobody uses, because two people ordered it the same week.
In many practices stock is ordered by whoever notices, often the lead nurse, sometimes the practice manager, sometimes whoever has the login. There is no shared count.
Supplier promotions add to the confusion. A bulk offer on one brand leads to a cupboard full of something the clinicians do not prefer, while the product they do use runs short.
Why dental stock is so easy to get wrong
- Hundreds of small items, in several surgeries and a store room.
- Usage varies with the clinician and the type of work booked.
- Several people can order, on different supplier websites.
- Deliveries are unpacked into cupboards without anyone recording them.
- Items with expiry dates sit at the back and go out of date.
What stock problems cost
Shortages mean workarounds, rescheduled treatment or emergency orders with delivery charges. Overstock ties up money and leads to waste when items expire. Nurses spend time checking cupboards and placing orders instead of preparing surgeries. And nobody can say what the practice spends on materials per clinician or type of treatment.
Multi-surgery practices have their own version of this. Each surgery builds a small hoard to avoid running out, so the practice holds more stock than it needs overall while individual surgeries still run short of whatever they did not think to hoard. A shared count removes the reason to hoard.
The stock system we build
- A list of stocked items per surgery and store, with a minimum level and a reorder quantity your nurses set.
- Barcode or QR labels on shelves or boxes, scanned with a phone when a box is opened or a delivery arrives.
- Where it helps, expected usage is estimated from the coming weeks' booked treatment types in your diary, so orders anticipate busy weeks.
- When stock falls below the minimum, the item joins a single order list. One person reviews and approves it.
- Approved orders are sent to suppliers by email or placed through their site, and marked as ordered so nobody orders them again.
- Deliveries are scanned in against the order, so missing items are spotted.
- Items with expiry dates are recorded with the date, and you are warned before they expire.
| Question | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Do we have it? | Go and look | Count on screen |
| Is it on order? | Ask around | Marked on the order list |
| Who ordered it? | Unknown | Recorded with approval |
| What expires soon? | Found when out of date | Warned in advance |
Surgeries that are ready in the morning
Nurses scan rather than count. One approved order goes out instead of several. Shortages are rare because low stock is flagged before it runs out. The practice manager can see spending by supplier and by category, which is useful when reviewing prices with suppliers.
New nurses and locums benefit too. Instead of asking where things are kept, they can look up an item and see its location, and when they open the last box, the system notices rather than relying on them to tell someone.
Is your stock like this?
- Several people place orders on different accounts.
- You run out of items mid-session.
- You find duplicate or expired stock in cupboards.
- Nobody knows exactly what is on order.