May i comment as a ward person who regularly borrows equipment from the library?
I would not sign for equipment borrowed nor would i pay a deposit!
Its a tad unfair to insist that one single person takes responsibility for an item of equipment, and anyway it still wouldn't work! What if nurse Smith signed for a pump then went off on long term sick? Who would you hound to get the kit back.
You would still be tasked with attempting to communicate with that individual and that is unlikely to be an efficient use of your time, you would still end up traipsing to the ward to find them!
As a small suggestion, we have a "library returns" box situated on our dept, all library equipment no longer used....sitting doing nothing is put into the box for the library staff to collect.
We tell staff about this returns box during devices training, so the message is passed on.
I am a named individual associated with the library and i do a sweep of the ward once a week to check for loaned equipment and return it to the box.
If you have one key person on each dept, nothing formal, just someone who is amenable and friendly,this can help one hundred fold.
Jolee will be able to answer your questions re individual patients as this is the system used at Blackpool, and i do think that it works well.
I hope that this helps.
Quinny
