EBME Forums Forums Management Equipment Libraries return of infusion devices

Does anyone remember how they got all staff to comply with giving up thier infusion devices without tears and tantrums?
I have a problem with staff hiding pumps, some have been missing for months.

When we set up our Equipment Library we had already convinced the users of the advantages ie they could find them, they would be clean, tested, charged and delivered.

Before the Library when we encountered resistance, we would point out that they as the users of equipment would be held responsible in court, for using equipment that had not been serviced (in the event of a serous incident)and "think how much support you would get from the Trust", was generally enough.

Mind you it also helped that we set service dates in the pumps to act as an aid memoir.

Lee

Do (did) you mean the difficulties experienced in collecting pumps to populate the Equipment Library in the first instance ... or a day-to-day reluctance by the wards to surrender pumps borrowed from the Library?

In either case, the issue is best solved through "interpersonal skills", I would have thought. Let's face it, some folk are good at that sort of thing, whilst others are better off, shall we say, shuffling about at the back of the workshop!

If the staff are hiding pumps, surely this can only be an indication that (for some reason or another) they are unhappy with the service afforded them by the Equipment Library. Why not have a chat with them and find out what the real problem is?

Not enough pumps. Never one available when they need one. Stuff like that, I should imagine. Then address the problems squarely once they have become clear.

There is also the problem of wards and staff incorrectly believing that they "own" the infusion devices. This is possibly a hangover from the days of ward budgets. One way to get round this is to give them the option of hanging on to "their" equipment but charging them for all maintenence and servicing. I think you will find that they will then reluctantly give up their equipment for the Library.

Don't wards have budgets these days, then? Is this the "new model", the general case?


Oh yes! The Zero-Budget Department!

The main problem is the Library is too far from clinical areas, and is locked after hours, with the key availlable only from the main reception desk. This takes time, and the night staff ask the porters to raid the library after 4:30pm so they dont have to find a security person during the night to give them the key.
But, then they hide the surplus machinery and dont tell the morning shift. So that member of staff goes on holiday and forgets all about the hidden machinery........
Thats the sort of scenario I am faced with, out of 69 infusion pumps, 49 syringe divers and 49 MS26 drivers I am working with
over half missing.

OK, so you've identified the problems clearly enough.

It sounds like kit has gone out (been taken out) of the Library without any record of who borrowed it. A fundamental breakdown of procedure, then. Not good.

So, what about the solutions?

An access key pad for out-of-hours collections?

A registered "swipe-card" (to allow access to the Library) issued to each ward and/or trusted staff member?

Cameras in the library?

I'm sure there could be a whole number of ways of going about it, depending really upon the details of the set-up where you are.

But "far from the clinical areas" sounds like a difficult one to address. How far, I wonder? It sounds like the only answer there is the obvious one ... move the Equipment Library to a move suitable location!

Meanwhile, how do you generally operate? During the day time, do you deliver and collect the kit, or do you have the staff come to the Library to collect? If so, that could be yet another bone of contention.

At many of the Libraries I have seen, the Librarian spends a fair amount of time each day "out on patrol", as it were. That is, not only delivering the kit, but also dragging it back off the wards!

At sunny Hereford the “Out of Hours” key is kept in the ward office of the Ward closest to the Library.

Experienced nurses are encouraged to get the item they want to avoid the time wasted when the wrong item is delivered by an Auxiliary or Porter.

When this is not possible, photos of every item the Library holds are shown on the last page of a “Library User folder”, this folder explains the processes to be used when dealing with the Library and there is one in each Ward office.

We have similar numbers of Infusion Pumps and Syringe Drivers Availability of this equipment and the support we receive from the Matrons has so far prevented Wards from stock piling equipment; however we reserve the right to inspect cupboards.

Lee

Why dont you just use the swipe cards, that they all have to open the door. Seems strange to have it locked. Equipment should be signed out to one patient and then returned or it is pointless having the space used as an equipment library. Surely the clinical director has put together a work instruction or policy statement that is to adhered to. But then again they listen to noone else so why them.

As has already been stated, put the responsibility on the ward not to use out of date equipment. They are liable for any patient problems and not the enguineering department.

As Lee said they hunt through all drawers, so do we here. It is funny when they say 'we were looking for one of them the other day.'

Billy

What I find disappointing (about this thread) is that we have still yet to hear from all the Equipment Library experts from whom we have heard so much in the past.

Wasn't there a Library Conference at Blackpool only last month? How come we haven't heard anything more about that?

Surely by now Equipment Library "best practice" must have been more or less hammered out?

OK ... so let's hear about it, then! Bullet points will do ...