Background and importance One of the hospital pharmacist’s main tasks is to optimise the inventory management of pharmaceutical products to keep costs under control in the supply chain and guarantee a minimal storage cost. A number of tools exist to allow the categorisation of products to be managed in order to focus on those considered most strategic. Aim and objectives To use the ABC analysis method to optimise the economic management of common medical device stocks at the pharmacy level of our hospital and the importance criteria set in the value of annual consumption. Material and methods On an Excel board, we calculated the accumulated stock value, accumulated value rate, rank and rank percentage of each medical device intended for common use. This made it possible to draw the cumulative value percentage curve according to the percentage of rank and the ‘Pareto histogram’. Results A total of 234 references were analysed, the total amount of which was 774 888.36€. We distinguished three categories of products: ‘Category A’: representing 85% of the total value of the stock and 20% of the total number of items. It included articles such as universal kits, sterile gloves or infusers. According to our criteria of importance, this group of articles was considered the most important. ‘Category B’: the items represented about 12% of the total value of stock and 30% of the total number of items, including products such as penis cases or plaster strips. ‘Category C’: the items represented 2% of the total value of stock and more than 50% of the total number of items, such as the case of Guedel cannulas or Y fittings. Conclusion and relevance The data collected confirmed Pareto’s law, according to which 20% of the products stored represent 80% of the value of the stock. This allows better efficiency in decision making and the implementation of actions adapted for each category, such as reducing the value of stocks and the cost of storage, to adapt the ordering method and fix the number of permanent inventories to be made. References and/or acknowledgements No conflict of interest.
