Improving the case cart process at Abbott Northwestern Hospital

An interdepartmental team at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, in Minneapolis, audited surgical case carts for three months to determine why a large percentage were incomplete or incorrectly filled. After discovering a shortage of specific supplies and instruments and an unavailability of staff at times when case carts needed to be filled, the team designed specific interventions that almost doubled the number of completed carts.

Case cart completeness increased from 50 percent to 93 percent. The number of trips staff made to case carts to add missing items was reduced by 20 percent, saving more than $40,000 per year in labor costs. The level of physician and staff frustration decreased, and communication and cooperation among the operating, central processing, and instrument departments greatly improved.