The sixty-second answer
Walk each operatory, exam room or supply shelf and say what is there: "nitrile gloves medium, 6 boxes; gauze 2 by 2, 3.5 packs." Maple-AI turns the speech into a count sheet and MapleInventory posts the variance. Keep narcotics and other controlled substances off the voice count: they follow their own federal and college record rules [1][2].
Why do clinics and dental offices struggle with supply counts?
Because the people who know the supplies best are the people who are busiest. A hygienist can tell you instantly that you are low on medium gloves, but has no time to sit with a clipboard. So supplies are counted when someone notices a gap, orders are placed in a rush, and the storage room fills with three brands of the same thing because nobody knew what was already there.
Clinical supplies are also awkward to count. They come in boxes, sleeves, packs and single units, they are spread across several rooms, and many have expiry dates. BDC's general advice for any stock is to label items clearly, use consistent units of measure, and count physically on a regular basis [7]. The trick is making that fit into a clinical day.
What should and should not go on a voice count?
A voice count is a good fit for everyday supplies and consumables:
- Gloves, masks, gowns, bibs and barriers.
- Gauze, cotton rolls, swabs, tongue depressors, bandages.
- Syringes, needles and sharps containers.
- Dental restorative and impression materials, burs, sterilization pouches.
- Cleaning and disinfecting products.
- Front-store retail stock in a pharmacy.
It is not the tool for narcotics and other controlled substances. Those are governed by federal law and by your provincial regulatory college, and they come with their own record, security and reporting obligations. Under the Narcotic Control Regulations, for example, a practitioner, a term that includes people entitled to practise medicine or dentistry [3], must produce required records to an inspector, allow an inspector to check all stocks of narcotics, keep required records for at least two years, protect narcotics against loss or theft, and report any loss or theft to the Minister within 10 days of discovering it [1]. Pharmacists have their own loss-and-theft reporting duty [2].
We are not suggesting that a voice count satisfies any of those requirements, and you should not treat it that way. Keep controlled substances on the records your regulator and college require, and check with them about what form those records must take. Everything below is about ordinary supplies.
What does a 15-minute voice count in a dental office sound like?
Here is a weekly count in a three-operatory dental office, done on Friday afternoon after the last patient.
- Check deliveries (1 minute). Make sure this week's supply order has been received in the system. Unreceived boxes will show up as a surplus.
- Close the door. Count in the operatory or supply room, not at the front desk. Never say patient names or anything about a patient during a count.
- Operatory 1 (3 minutes). One earbud in, phone in a pocket: "Nitrile gloves small, 2 boxes. Nitrile gloves medium, 1.5 boxes. Masks level 3, 1 box. Cotton rolls, 0.5 bag. Saliva ejectors, 1 bag."
- Operatories 2 and 3 (5 minutes). Same order in each room, so it becomes routine. If each room is set up as its own location, you see which room is running low.
- Supply room (4 minutes). Sealed stock in whole units: "Nitrile gloves medium, 10 boxes. Gauze 2 by 2, 8 packs. Sterilization pouches large, 4 boxes." Where expiry matters, say it: "Alginate, 3 bags, expiry February."
- Review and post (2 minutes). Check that each spoken item landed on the right product and fix anything that did not. Then post.
Decide once how partial boxes are counted. Either say fractions ("1.5 boxes") or count pieces, but do it the same way for each product every time. A count of 50 where the system expects boxes is the fastest way to create a meaningless variance.
How is a pharmacy different?
A community pharmacy usually has two very different kinds of stock under one roof. The dispensary holds prescription drugs, including narcotics and other controlled substances with the regulated records described above [2]. The front store holds everyday retail goods: vitamins, first aid, cosmetics, household products.
Voice cycle counting is a natural fit for the front store, which behaves like any small retail shop: a few sections a day, shelf and backroom together, variances by product. Keep dispensary records, and certainly anything controlled, on the systems and procedures your regulator and your pharmacy's policies require.
How do hazardous supplies fit in?
Disinfectants, sterilants and some lab or dental chemicals are often hazardous products under WHMIS. When a hazardous product is used in the workplace, employers must train workers, provide access to up-to-date safety data sheets, and make sure products are properly labelled [4].
A supply count is a convenient moment to check the basics: every container labelled, every product on the shelf with a current safety data sheet, nothing decanted into an unmarked bottle. Say it as part of the count ("surface disinfectant, 4 jugs, labels OK") and fix anything that is not.
What do supply variances usually tell you?
- Steady shortfalls on gloves or masks are usually undercounted usage, not theft. Adjust your reorder point.
- A product short in one room and over in another means restocking between rooms is not recorded.
- Expired stock turning up means rotation is not happening. Record it as waste so the loss is visible.
- Several brands of the same item suggests orders are being placed without checking what is on hand.
Expired and damaged supplies are a real cost. IAS 2 recognises write-downs and all losses of inventories as an expense in the period they occur [6], and recording them when you find them keeps the numbers honest month to month.
How do counts turn into better reorders?
The most immediate payoff of a weekly count is ordering. Once you have a few weeks of counts, you can see how many boxes of medium gloves each operatory actually goes through, and set a reorder point that covers the supplier's lead time plus a small buffer. Below that level, the item goes on the next order; above it, it does not.
This stops the two classic clinic problems at once: the emergency run to a local supplier at retail prices because something ran out mid-day, and the storage room full of product that expires before it is used. BDC notes that a good recording system should tell you when you need to order more, so you always have enough to meet demand [7]. The count is what keeps that system true.
Are clinic supplies inventory at year end?
Often, yes. The Income Tax Act says that property, other than capital property, that is parts or supplies is, for greater certainty, inventory, and inventory is valued at year end at the lower of cost and fair market value [5]. How a practice treats small consumables, and whether it counts them at year end, is a question for its accountant. A clinic that already counts weekly will find the year-end number easy to produce.
How does MapleInventory handle it?
MapleInventory tracks supplies by location, so each operatory, exam room or shelf can be counted on its own, and it posts count variances to its stock ledger where you can trace them. Voice count is in preview: you speak the count, Maple-AI turns it into a count sheet, and nothing posts until you have reviewed it. MapleInventory is not a controlled-substances register, and it should not be used as one.