Pharmacy year end Inventory!

At the end of the fiscal year, as part of a self-check mechanism, SIM does an annual inventory. Offices count office supplies, and the pharmacy at Galmi counts EVERYTHING! The better organized things are ahead of time, and the more volunteers there are for counting, the faster everything gets done. Typically it takes a minimum of 3-4 hours. Alan worked for days in advance, sorting, getting rid of rubbish, and re-organizing things so that it would be obvious for the (many non-medical) volunteers what exactly needed to be counted. It seems fairly straightforward, right? Well it is if you are counting apples, oranges, and pears. It's not so simple if you consider how many different kinds of suture there are, and not just thickness of suture. Needle size, type of suture, type of needle, dissolving, or non-dissolving...the list goes on. Then there are the medications, the medical supplies, the cleaning supplies (like soap powder), disposable, and non-disposable items, and all the other bits and pieces that make Galmi pharmacy the wonderful resource that it is. Unfortunately, I had planned to get action shots of all of us in action, but then completely forgot about it. Someone volunteered to watch the children for me (Deb) so that I could go and participate. My most important role (aside from a bit of counting) was to provide things to eat for the pharmacy staff and volunteer counters. The day before, Alan informed me that one of the pharmacy staff had commented that there would definitely need to be more than just "one for each person". Thankfully, the week before, I'd made donuts for the first time, and ended up with an enormous batch--14 dozen--and they came in rather handy! I also brought muffins of various sorts. There were also cold drinks as a reward for all of the hard work. The count went smoothly, and might have been done in record time--just over an hour. There were many willing volunteers. One of the preferred places for counting was of course, the (air conditioned) COLD room, where the most temperature sensitive items are stored. When ever someone finished their sheets, they were given another job, and at the end of the count there were at least 10-12 people all jammed in the cold room counting.(See the second picture, and imagine one other aisle) Needless to say we are thankful that things went so smoothly, and for all of the willing helpers that made the task light.