discrepancy between materials management and sterile processing

[spiggy1025]

i have a general topic to discuss, is anyone responsible for all materials management functions and processing instruments??? I am in that position, does anyone have any comments??? What should i say to management to make them realize the importance of separating the two???

[sonny1388]

We have an interesting set-up in that we are responsible for the materials and processing functions for the OR, with another department handling materials for the hospital in general. They have been trying for years to get our department under Materials instead of the OR, and have thankfully thus far been unsuccessful. It is a difficult job in explaining to Administration the importance of separating the two. It may be a bit easier for you to start with the OR management by showing them the quality issues that they may be experiencing now and how those might be resolved by splitting the two departments. Bringing up these customer service issues may be a way of getting them on your side and giving you a bit more muscle when talking to Admin about the change. I think it is easy for people who don't work in our field to view sterile instruments and supplies as the same thing, when in reality they are quite disimilar.

[jrc]

What is your job title? I have worked at a hospital where we had a Central Supply Department that handled purchasing, shipping and receiving, warehousing, inventory and distribution, decontamination, assembly, sterilization, and case cart assembly. What made it work was that we had a Director of Central Supply with a Purchasing Manager, Distribution Manager, and Sterile Processing Manager. These managers then had supervisors under them. Nobody under the director level was responsible for anything in the other areas. If you are responsible for all those functions with nobody to delegate the management and supervision to, I agree that it is too much to try to manage.

[spiggy1025]

my title is S.P.D. Coordinator. I can't seem to show upper management that my duties need to be restructured. I want to really get involved in Materials Management(we are currently implementing a new PDA type inventory system) We currently have 2 or 3 people doing what could be done by one person. I have one technician working on instruments but with 20 to 25 cases a day, it's too much, just looking to see if anyone has similar issues at their facility.

Thanks to everyone

[sonny1388]

Holy crap! you have 2 or 3 people doing MM, but only one person doing instruments, AND you are doing 20-25 cases a day? Unless they are all...I don't know...wart removals or something, I can't imagine that one person could even begin to keep up! We average 15 cases/day and have 3 FTE's, and I still think we are short of staff. I don't suppose you work anywhere in the Colorado area, I would love to come give you a hand! How long is your dept. open? How many suites do you have? And, just to make it relevant, do all of your employees have the same job title/description?

[Diane]

I to would like to know how you get it done and what is your error rate because you must have to move like crazy. We have 4 people in our Central Processing Department and we don't even do that many cases in a day. We also have 5 people in materials doing what needs to be done.

[spiggy1025]

I work at a surgery center in connecticut. We currently have 2 operating rooms with a potential for 4 (I don't see it happening due to space issues) i do everything!!!! These aren't small cases either, we do knee scopes and shoulder scopes, acl repairs and a ton of hand cases. We do an average of 15 to 20 cases a day. I do all of the stocking and ordering for the center and another person does the instrumentation and cleans the rooms. I jump in to help him because it's to busy!!!! WE are lucky if we get thirty minutes for lunch. I could run the whole materials management part of my job if they would just hire someone, come to think of it the other guy is on vacation next.........I'll be doing everything!!!! My perfect world would have me as the materials manager overseeing two instrument technicians, even then we would still be busy!!!!! I know why i sleep well at night

[sonny1388]

Wow, that is a lot to handle. I would imagine that there are things that you have no possibility of getting done that could mean big trouble for your facility if an issue ever came up (i.e. documentation and paperwork, which has to be correct and kept for seven years, autoclave cleaning that should be done at least weekly, the list just keeps going). This might be a place where you could go to the next step on the ladder and suggest to administration getting another, or even a few more employees.

[barrhelv]

hi we have 8 or rooms and we are under or no mm at all we sterilize and that is all . We have about 15 with a supervisor. 13 to 20 cases. It is really nice we can do what we do best and not worry about all the mm matters we separated about 5 years ago and it is heaven. We are under OR and it is working they are becoming more aware of what we do. Or pulls thier own carts. Yes we are in Montana.. BIg Sky....