3. Money saving. This is the one on top of everyone's mind, for sure. "If I have that extra dollar at the end of the year, we can invest that back in to our unit and our patients," says Goetz. She says that by leveraging supply management systems to keep better track and to influence more efficient use of inventory, she can save her department more money. That money can be put back in to the department. "If we're getting cost savings from a supply management perspective, we can turn that back and invest in our patients," she says. Can the analytics that saved that cash actually help determine what would be the best investment? "It kind of does," says Goetz. She says that analytics generated by supply management can allow her to see what supplies a department goes through the most, and allows her to ask "is there something that's newer out there, something that's better?" She says a hospital "can customize what your overall purchases for patient care could be based on what the trends are in supply management."

4. Organization. Keeping things in stock and on hand is a moot point if nobody can find it. Knowing who needs what and being able to pinpoint it is a strong feature of electronic supply management, says Goetz, who says GBMC's inventory is organized by service, meaning that in each general area all of the products are grouped to relate to each other. Orders are submitted through portable devices, which helps speed up the process and reduce errors. "You can search for a product, type what you are looking for and blinking lights under each product ... shows you where it is and make sure you have the right thing," says Goetz. The system is touch screen based as well, which makes it easy to see what the specific needs of each patient is. "All the patients pull up," when someone access the inventory system, she says. All that needs to be done is to "touch the patient [icon in the system] they're looking to charge items to." Having the ability to quickly and accurately identify specific products and track in real time who they are going to is an asset to hospitals in terms of accountability and cost savings, Goetz says.

5. Time. The less time spent in the supply cabinet the better. "Standing next to a supply room or having to call for products – those are things that take you away from the bedside and take you away from the patient," says Goetz. By implementing a smart system to manage supply, departments or whole organizations can begin to slash away at inaccurate retrievals, problematic supply levels, or time wasted in trying to locate an uncommon item. Goetz sees supply management as driving many of the day to day actions in a hospital. When properly implemented, electronic supply management helps keep track of stock, helps departments make smart decisions about what to change in the future, keeps them organized and operating fluidly, and can save them cash. All of these things tie back to the issue of time: She says that the less of it spent doing all of the above means more freedom for nurses to "spend their time doing things that are beneficial to the patient."