Quality Improvement issues in a hospital

[oopp2024]

Our hospital has a warehouse. But no one is specifically assigned to take care of it. A staff places orders whenever he is told something is needed. He is often out of the warehouse as he helps with another sector.

Now doctors and nurses have indicated the equipment and supplies they required were not available or could not be located.

How can I resolve the issues and what quality improvement tool(s) would I use? Thank you for your help.

 

[Bev D]

The solution(s) are obvious at this point and no ‘quality tools’ are needed. You need to understand and implement basic warehouse controls and some way of signaling when material is needed. Understanding things like usage rates, set storage locations, forward storage locations and kanban cards will work (think grocery store - that’s what Toyota did) An ERP system will do this for you but from your post I’m assuming that this is far too costly and complex for your organization to implement?

 

[SeanN]

How can I resolve the issues and what quality improvement tool(s) would I use?

To resolve the problem (not an issue!) alone, you don't need any special quality improvement tools. A simple way is to "fix' the warehouse staff. In longer run, read ISO 7101 for some inspirations and roll out step by step.

 

[Bev D]

Frankly I’m concerned that the OP states that they have no real warehouse process and only 1 part time employee in the warehouse. What of kind of ‘Hospital’ (outside of the isolated very rural or war torn areas) is that?

 

[Randy]

How can I resolve the issues and what quality improvement tool(s) would I use?

You don't need special tools, you need some decision making where there is someone in charge of your "warehouse" that can count better than 1-2-3-another-another and make up an inventory to track in's & out's.

 

[Victory]

As stated in #2 post, basic warehouse practices need to be put in place. Items need to be labeled (description/item#) and have a standard bin location (add restocking card in the bin). Not sure what your layout looks like, but if the person who manages the warehouse is not available, put items on metro racks (labeled) that are most frequently used and put them closest to where the entrance is for self service by staff. Color coding based on department can be used to group items on the racks. Use this as a starting point (create the standard) and improve from there. Have the wh person work with hospital staff to identify those items on the racks and agree to a process (item locations, restocking, exceptions, etc.). Good luck!

 

[Bev D]

One negative: who will do the “self service”? Not the doctors. And nurses have higher skilled work to do to ensure patient safety and wellness. The biggest weakness the hospital faces is properly staffing the warehouse and inventory delivery personnel. A part time person is catastrophic. Until that is rectified other actions are useless

 

[Victory]

Completely concur that healthcare professionals like doctors and nurses may not handle self-service tasks. Such responsibilities can be delegated to support staff (we've used interns or part-time workers serving as runners or handlers) for restocking at the point of use. There could be a designated store room within the hospital, but a thorough understanding of the current situation is necessary. My aim was to assist the original post by suggesting a starting point: triaging, stabilizing, and standardizing the process to improve their situation. Thanks.

 

[ChrisM]

Start with the "Process" approach... why do you have a warehouse, how do goods get into it, how are they booked out and taken to where they are needed? How are stock levels controlled? How are shelf-lifed items handled, special storage temperature requirements etc. Who is responsible? Someone must be responsible and they need to implement suitable control measures, which almost certainly includes appointing at least one storeman/storewoman