EBME Forums Forums Management Equipment Libraries Equipment loan rules

Hi all,

We will be at some date in the near future in the position to update our infusion devices. We would need to justify the numbers, so to this end we need to know what stock levels we require.

It's no good telling the Trust that we've got 200 volumetrics permanently booked out of the Library so we require 220 replacements when in fact 20 of our volumetrics are sat around on wards doing nothing. We need to keep our books straight.

The whole idea behind the Library was to make sure that the equipment inventory was sound - not too much or too little.

I must add that our Library has managed to save the Trust money. Equipment doesn't stay idle - it's a juggling act.

It would be wrong for the Library to have shelves stacked with equipment because that would be a waste of money.

Time for cider

Cheers

Mark

Hi Mark,

There is always a certain basis of projection like projected norms for each location by the patient type or ward discipline, etc. That gives us the total quantity of pumps needed for the entire hospital. This has to be worked out with the relevant wards or departments before a final figure can be derived. Biomed equipment history record for pump failures can be used to cater for equipment failure prediction and this relates to what you have mentioned as to how many pumps will be needed to keep up with the demand. With equipment library, utilization is an important factor as you also need to think of periodical manintenance. It is probably a projection that will take away many hours of thinking. I believe there is a need to put up a justification paper for this purpose. Pls share with us when things become clearer.

BTW what are the equipment types that will be in the library in future ....vents, feeding pumps, etc?

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

If I was in charge of the "Library", Quinny, if you didn't sign you wouldn't get the kit! Simple as that.

Why is it unfair to take responsibility? I would say it's more unfair to the taxpayer who has to keep stumping up the money to replace kit that people can't be bothered to look after properly.

Nurse A can simply get a signature from Nurse B etc. if the item is transferred (I can tell you were never in the army). This can apply to when the kit it assigned to a patient, too. What's the problem ... pride?

I know of several instances of people working in the middle east, who signed for something and then weren't allowed to leave the country several years later as they couldn't find the 'something'.

One was a hopital engineer who had to sign for things on a daily basis. Ten years later when trying to get his passort back, they asked him for the wherabouts of 4 plastic waiting room chairs.

He had to pay for them.

And what's wrong with that?

A similar thing happened to me the last time I tried to get an exit visa from the good old Desert Kingdom. The "transfer" (to it's new owner) of my trusty old 4x4 hadn't gone through, due to the lack of a current MVPI sticker (that's like the UK's MOT test). I had to travel back 250 miles into the desert to get it sorted.

Do "guest workers" leaving the UK come under similar scrutiny, I wonder? And if not ... why not?

I think it is very fair that if a kit is entrusted to you, you own the responsibility of returning back the kit to where it belongs. But I didn't know the middle east was so sticky about things that were 10 years or more? Quite surprisingly for an oil-rich country.

Do you not think that is a little harsh Geoff?
Surely he couldn't be responsible for waiting room chairs over a period of several years?
Chairs have legs, they can 'walk'

I also know of one ebme chief tech. who had to pay for a missing doppler (although I can't remember the exact circumstances).

My professional background is not within the Armed forces no, nor have i worked any where but in the NHS thus my experience is limited AND i am shocked re having to pay a deposit for a piece of kit!

I still would not sign for it Geoff.
As probably the only qualified nurse on a ward of 30 patients, i would be batting this one up to management.
My major concern is to get through the shift without any thing awful happening, certainly not having a conversation from some fascist in an equipment library about where a feed pump has gone that i signed for a month ago!
Its not a priority for these nurses, therefore as i said earlier, you will be spending an awful lot of time trying to firstly track down the signatory, followed by more wasted time tracking down the device!
If it were me, i would be fund raising in earnest to purchase our own stock of pumps! I would be doing everything possible to avoid the library if such rules were introduced.
Lots of lovely full shelves filled with shiny unused pumps!

Indeed.

I would spend zero time in tracking down the signatory, Quinny. If they didn't return the kit, they would be billed for it, simple as that. It's the way the "real world" works, you know. Everyone takes responsibility for their actions. That's why you get paid a salary.

Did you call in at the Forum yesterday? Spot many fascists there?

Huw ... no, not harsh at all. That's what "Property Control" is for. It featured in every hospital I worked in "out there", but has yet to catch on in the NHS, apparently.

I (also) know of a chief tech who saved his company many thousands of Riyals by "creating" circuit boards that would otherwise have been recorded as missing spare parts when a hospital was handed over to the incoming contractor. Note also that we would have been penalized if all the PM's hadn't been done. Perhaps things would sharpen up a bit in the UK if government hospitals had a handover-takeover every three years or so as well!