Utilizing the computer for a hospital bid program

The goals of a computerized bid program include acquisition of pharmaceuticals at lowest possible cost, guaranteeing prices for a fixed period of time, having the ability to provide budget and patient charge information, decreased payroll hours and expenses vs. a manual system, and having the ability to retrieve data for accounting and purchasing procedures. These goals can be obtained by separating the bid procedure into five operations, which are identifying the pharmaceuticals to bid, preparing a vendor bid list, tabulating the bids received, selection of awarded bids, and vendor notification of awarded bids.