Hospital pharmacy has long managed what’s directly in front of it: the central pharmacy and, when bandwidth allows, some satellites. This narrow lens causes supply chain leaders to miss the majority of what truly drives cost reduction, operational resilience, and clinical readiness. Without the complete picture, organizations keep ordering “what we’ve always ordered,” instead of reallocating surplus to higher‑volume areas or sharing inventory across hospitals in the system.
True end-to-end visibility means knowing where everything sits across the enterprise, from automation, compounding areas and hazardous drug storage to overflow closets and general supply rooms. With a unified view, leaders can forecast from real data, manage Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) and 340B program compliance, and stop flying blind.
The Hidden Risks of Partial Visibility
The most expensive inventory is the inventory you don’t know you have. And according to our own research, just 20% of hospital and pharmacy leaders report having full, real-time visibility into their inventory across all care settings.
I once worked with a health system that had not just one storage room, but an overflow storage room … and an unmarked room across campus with two cages packed floor to ceiling with boxes and supplies. The hospital’s frontline teams kept reordering for the main area, unaware that they had between hundreds of boxes and bins sitting idle nearby and untouched for who knows how long.
The result: capital trapped on shelves, expirations, and a scramble to unwind the overage.
Siloed practices and processes compound the problem for health system pharmacies. The infusion center works one way, a satellite another, and the main hospital a third. When teams don’t communicate and inventory isn’t treated as a single system asset, organizations miss cost‑saving transfers and time‑sensitive redeployments. The upstream effect is equally harmful. Manufacturers and distributors read steady orders as true demand, only to see volumes suddenly collapse when a hidden cache is discovered. That whiplash destabilizes production planning, allocation, and service levels.
True end‑to‑end visibility counters all of this. A good system closes the loop between the manufacturer, wholesaler, and provider so that inventory and shortage signals flow both directions. At the site level, that same transparency prevents reordering items that are expiring on one shelf, a kit or tray, or in automation while needed across the street, reducing waste and turning reactive purchasing into strategic redeployment.
Where AI Changes the Game
Shortages remain the bane of medication procurement. At any given time, hundreds of drugs face some level of scarcity and switching isn’t simple or cheap. A June 2025 report from Vizient found that in 2024, hospitals across the U.S. reported spending a staggering 20 million hours annually managing these shortages, racking up nearly $900 million in associated costs. And this is compounded by the persistent labor shortages in pharmacy, where more than 55 percent of hospitals report pharmacy leader shortages and 90 percent are currently dealing with pharmacy technician shortages, according to the ASHP.
Managing drug shortages is a labor-intensive process. Clinicians and procurement staff must assess alternatives, check contracts and allocations, and weigh patient needs and safety considerations. But this is where AI can best be used to turn these cascading variables into action. By ingesting weather data to flag a hurricane threatening a plant or distribution center, surfacing current inventory and days on hand, identifying clinically viable alternatives, and then scanning shortage histories to gauge risk, hospital pharmacies can more effectively predict and prevent shortages rather than merely react.
But AI’s value isn’t confined to crisis. It accelerates executive‑level and day-to-day decisions by reviewing far more data faster than human teams can, offering a comprehensive foundation that leaders can validate rather than assemble piecemeal. In contracting, where vaccines are a notoriously complex category, AI can weigh tier volumes, patient mix, and competing offers to recommend the best fit. In operations, it can evaluate insourcing versus outsourcing by considering labor, materials, and utilization patterns. The net effect is a move from single‑angle analysis to multi‑factor, system‑level strategy.
Crucially, AI also makes pharmacy inventory liquid across a health system. It can identify where a drug sits, calculate burn rates, and recommend redistribution such as “move this quantity from the slow‑moving main pharmacy section to the busy outpatient infusion center,” so shelves become a network rather than islands. And when primary wholesalers are short, AI can scan secondary channels, check contract status, and guide compliant procurement without guesswork.
Technology-Enabled Momentum
Advanced technology doesn’t just speed up tasks; it changes mindsets. Take an organization that’s tagging items over $100 with RFID, collapsing cycle‑count times from five to seven minutes to roughly seven seconds per item. That time dividend helps unlock a culture shift: once teams experience automation’s accuracy and speed, they begin asking, “What else can we streamline or automate?” AI builds on that momentum, not only executing faster but “thinking” across datasets to highlight what’s worth reengineering next.
What “End-to-End” Really Looks Like
True visibility starts with multiple integrations. Connect wholesalers and third‑party vendors, automate DSCSA and 340B processes, synchronize with the ERP and EHR, and link automation equipment. The result is a single universe of usable data. From there, stakeholders can pull what they need from the same source of truth with robust demand planning and forecasting. The medication safety officer can examine errors, diversions, and recalls, operations leaders can track spend and budget performance, and clinical teams can explore patient outcomes.
Just as important, visibility extends ahead of purchasing orders. Forecasting demand with real algorithms and shortage intelligence replaces rote re-ordering. On receipt, data guides the “last mile” inside the walls: what belongs in the fridge or carousel, which unit needs stock now, what should be staged for Automated Dispensing Machine replenishment. These decisions sound tactical, but when compounded across sites over the course of a few months, they define financial performance and bedside readiness.
The Payoff: Financial, Operational, and Clinical
Ultimately, end‑to‑end visibility pays off across the balance sheet and at the bedside. It curbs duplicate orders, emergency buys, and expirations by matching supply to true system‑wide demand, rather than to the contents of a single bin or room; leaders stop “discovering” hidden caches and start reallocating inventory before value leaks away. It also returns hours to pharmacists and technicians, as advanced tracking compresses workflows that once took minutes per item to mere seconds, freeing teams to pivot from manual reconciliation to strategic and patient‑facing work.
Resilience improves as organizations shift from scrambling during shortages to preparing weeks in advance, using AI to surface risk, alternatives, days on hand, and redistribution options across sites. Upstream partnerships strengthen, too: cleaner demand signals help manufacturers and distributors plan and allocate reliably, while pharma companies that lean into transparency become outcomes‑focused allies rather than transactional vendors. The destination is an integrated, predictive pharmacy supply chain. One data foundation with many role‑specific insights reduce waste, stabilizes spend, and safeguards continuity of care for every patient.
Dr. Valerie Bandy, PharmD, MBA
Dr. Valerie Bandy is a licensed and registered pharmacist with over 25 years of experience in pharmacy operations and compliance. She serves as Tecsys’ resident Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) expert, with an extensive understanding of both its framework and execution best practices. Dr. Bandy has participated on task forces for the Texas State Board of Pharmacy, on committees and in officer roles at the local, state, and national level including TSHP (Texas Society of Health System Pharmacists), ASHP (American Society of Health System Pharmacists), MSHP, and other professional boards and foundations. She holds ASHP’s Leadership Academy training and serves as an ASHP Wellbeing and Resilience Ambassador. Prior to joining Tecsys, she was the director of Pharmacy at Wellstar’s Atlanta Medical Center in downtown Atlanta after leaving Trinity Health’s corporate office where she was the system director of Pharmacy. She also worked for five years on the Healthcare Provider Performance Improvement team under Strategy and Operations as a Specialist Master for Deloitte Consulting, LLP, and on the Healthcare Provider team at PriceWaterhouseCoopers. She holds experience in the full spectrums of pharmaceutical manufacturing, regulatory compliance, technology, billing, and operations industries. In her current role, she serves as a valuable source of innovative pharmacy operations insights amongst her peers within and outside of Tecsys.
