The Irony of The Authorities' Inventory Management

So late in November we had one of those Mandatory Conference Calls. I had to get up early to get down to the pharmacy so I could get in on the call. That annoys me. I'd rather be sleeping.

One of the things that The Authorities spoke about... no, that's too kind. We were MANDATED to reduce our inventories by the end of the year. Accountants in the company want to close out the books with low inventories. Yes, I'm sure that $200,000 in inventory looks sooooo much better than $210,000, right?

Well, ok, Mickey the pharmacy manager and myself started watching things closely to snip off a few hundred dollars here and there. Sure, we had to turn away some patients because we didn't have the medication in stock, but that's inconsequential to inventory management, right?

Pretty soon it added up and we were able to reduce the inventory by about $5,000 by the middle of December. Hey, it wasn't much, but it I'm sure it made some bean counters in the company very, very happy.

And then it happened...

One day in the middle of December, and as irony would have it, during the overlap time between me and Mickey, here comes the UPS dude. He has one of those giant Styrofoam shipping containers. You know the ones... the ones that make you sick to your stomach when you see it because you know it is full of vaccinations of some kind. It's even further ironic because Mickey and I were talking, at the exact moment the UPS dude walked in, about the good job we had done reducing the inventory.

Our mouths dropped. We were stunned. The tech signed for the package and opened it. There inside were not one, but TWO boxes of expensive Zostavax, sent to us by The Authorities... the very Authorities that made us come in early that one day just a few weeks before to nag at us to REDUCE the inventory! Now here they are increasing it dramatically with two tiny boxes, uprooting and destroying all the work we put in to lower the inventory.

Now, are you ready for the BEST part? Ok, ok, hold on to something... this one will knock you out of your seat. The Zostavax shipped to us expires in the middle of January, 2015!

If after everything you've read that I've said about The Authorities over the years hasn't convinced you that I work for a bunch of imbeciles, I've finally got you. This is it. There's no denying it now. These people have absolutely no brains of any kind and here they are in charge of healthcare?