Believe it or not, not all modules created with custom eCommerce development end up being used to sell something. One of the best parts about having access to the source code — and since it’s our platform, we do — is that we can use a module as the beginning of a project and then alter it as necessary for the client’s needs. It’s the same eCommerce framework with a specialized module attached.
One of our favorite examples of this is when we worked with a medical group to assist in surgeries. This might sound strange at first; no one is buying anything during surgery, of course! The hospital’s problem is that they were losing millions of dollars because they weren’t keeping track of everything that was going into a patient’s body and what was coming out. In some cases, it could be some small tool worth thousands of dollars, but in most cases, it was a piece of gauze or a clamp. It really doesn’t matter what it was, because in far too many cases the patient would experience pain or get an infection. This not only forced the hospital to re-do a multi-thousand-dollar surgery for free, but it opened them up to millions of dollars in lawsuits. It also damaged their reputation in the community.
How did we work with them to solve the problem? Turn the cart into a checklist and utilize the eCommerce product catalog as the inventory. Items required for the surgery were selected from an app we created. Because the rest of the site held thousands of medical items on the product details page — including manufacturer, size, shape, color, and anything else need to identify the piece — the items could be pre-loaded and alternates could be chosen based on the hospital’s inventory. Incompatibilities between certain items could also be flagged.
During the surgery, a medical professional was tasked with using the app in the operating room, adding the item to the “cart” as the surgeons called them out. The items were then removed from the “cart” as they came out of the patient. At the end of the surgery, the only items left were the ones that were supposed to stay, such as stents, bone supports, pacemakers, etc.
Keeping better track of medical supplies with this type of headless eCommerce option obviously reduced the number of times a doctor would leave something behind. It also served as an excellent way to document the process, so if a patient complained of pain, lost items could be ruled out as a possibility.