Ghost Inventory
Equipment that appears in a supplier's records as owned or in-warehouse but cannot actually be located, a silent capital leak common in DME operations.
Ghost inventory is the term for assets that exist on paper, in the inventory count, on the balance sheet, but cannot be physically found. In the DME world, ghost inventory typically arises when returned units aren't logged, when units are informally moved between locations without a record, when theft or loss goes unreported, or when assets are retired from service without being removed from the system.
For example, a supplier may list 50 concentrators but locate only 38 during a count. The difference could reflect units at patient homes, an unrecorded branch transfer, a missed return, or an actual loss. Reconcile the records against a physical count before deciding which explanation applies.
The cost depends on the equipment and whether the missing units can be recovered. Besides replacement expense, inaccurate counts can lead staff to promise equipment that is not available.
Confirming each checkout and return against the right unit reduces these gaps. Regular physical counts and investigation of discrepancies are still needed; software activity alone cannot establish where every unit is.
How TrackDME addresses this
Stop ghost inventory with TrackDME