Automating Perioperative Inventory Management: A Quality Improvement Project.

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Surgical Operations
• Supply Chain Optimization

Background:

• Traditional preference cards in perioperative settings contribute to increased nursing workload, process variability, and higher costs.
• Inefficiencies in manual inventory management impact resource allocation and patient care delivery.

Purpose of the Study:

• To implement an automated perioperative inventory management system.
• To decrease nursing workload and enhance efficiency in the operating room.
• To improve preference card accuracy, reduce add-on supplies, and lower procedural costs.

Main Methods:

• A quality improvement project utilizing a preintervention-postintervention survey design.
• Evaluation of nursing workload perception, preference card accuracy, add-on supply usage, and procedural costs.
• Implementation of an automated inventory management system.

Main Results:

• Nurses reported decreased workload in supply management and cost categories, with an increase in documenting supply use.
• A 7.7% improvement in preference card accuracy was observed over four months.
• Average procedural supply costs decreased by $86.72 per procedure, totaling $260,467 in hospital savings.
• Add-on supplies were reduced by 4,177, a 20% decrease.

Conclusions:

• Automated perioperative inventory management systems effectively reduce nursing workload and supply costs.
• Improvements in preference card accuracy directly correlate with significant cost savings and reduced waste.
• The system enhances efficiency and optimizes resource utilization in the perioperative environment.