The hospital supply inventory managed in ORs is one of the most difficult inventories to maintain. The items included in the hospital supply inventory move from the shipper to your receiving; from receiving to the floor and finally to the individual patient use storage places. In order for these inventory supplies to arrive when and where they will be needed they are typically handled by many different hands. They are also subject to expiration dates, waste and evaporation (the accounting term for items which inexplicably drop out of inventory). When you consider these hospital inventory supplies account for as much as 25% to 40% of your hospital’s budget, a small amount of waste, evaporation, misplaced items, and/or expired goods adds up quickly. The success of any of these “solutions” starts and ends with an accurate physical inventory. BIG Inventory, Inc. sprang from Electronic Inventory Systems (EIS) which was founded in 1985. EIS served retailers throughout the United States helping them acclimate from financial inventories to UPC based inventories. The management of EIS became involved in hospital inventories, finding a tremendous unfulfilled need and eventually committing 100 percent of its resources to hospital inventories. They developed a unique system called BERTHA (Bringing Employees, Resources and Technology to Hospital Audits) and named the company BIG Inventory, Inc. (BERTHA Implementation Group).