"This prevented staff from pulling the same suture from multiple
open boxes," says Ms. Heckmaster. "To further reinforce which boxes
to use up first, we turned the other boxes around, so the opening was
not facing the front."
Ms. Heckmaster didn't stop there. She knew staff would give materi-
als management the empty suture box to indicate the need to reorder,
so she wrote "DNO" (Do Not Order) on selected boxes to prevent the
facility from reordering them. "We instructed staff to only open a new
suture box once one became empty," she says.
Stock shelf neatness
It took months of painstaking work, but AdventHealth Surgery Center
Lenexa is now home to an organized system with all 118 types of
suture in the department located on a single suture cart in a single
location. Suture is designated a PAR level to prevent over-ordering,
and only 1 box of each suture is opened at a time.
"Not only did the solution to the suture management issue result in
decreased cost and waste," says Ms. Heckmaster, "but also it
increased staff satisfaction because, says everyone can easily find
what they need."
OSM
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