Standardizing Inventory Reduces Reprocessing Time and Costs Through Worker Task Familiarity in Medical Devices

Surgical instrument inventory optimization leads to sizable cost savings through tray reduction. Yet, a commonly overlooked benefit is the increase in efficiency stemming from reduced task variety for health care workers resulting from this reduction in inventory variety. We hypothesized that reducing the variety of surgical instrument trays would lead to significant improvement in reprocessing time, labor cost savings, and staff satisfaction.

We conducted a 12-month observational study at an academic hospital's medical device reprocessing (MDR) department before and after inventory optimization. The evaluated outcome measures were MDR time saved, labor cost reduction, and worker satisfaction as measured by an anonymized survey.

After standardization, the results revealed that the time savings of new MDR technicians (14 ± 6.2 minutes) were significantly higher than the time savings of experienced MDR technicians (4.6 ± 5.7 minutes) ( p < .001). The total reprocessing cost savings equal $2,575.96 Canadian Dollars (CAD) annually. We found a higher satisfaction with the standardized tray among MDR technicians, with eight of nine new MDR technicians (89%) significantly preferring it, and 12 of 19 (63%) experienced MDR technicians "somewhat" preferring the standardized tray.

Standardizing surgical trays enhances efficiency, reduces costs, and improves staff satisfaction, making it a valuable strategy in inventory management.