Case Study
EMMS Hospital Reduces Surgical Scrubs Costs
EMMS Hospital reduces surgical scrubs costs, time loss, and unnecessary aggravation and stress with a Polytex Automatic Workwear Management Solution.
Background
The EMMS Nazareth Hospital in Northern Israel was established in 1861. Today, the hospital has over 150 beds and its departments and clinics serve approximately half a million people from the surrounding area, it receives over 300,000 patient visits annually. The surgical departments, staffed by 150 people, includes six operating theaters, and performs more than 5000 surgeries each year.
Top Five Achievements
The Polytex solution gives the operating room staff at EMMS Nazareth Hospital the convenience and peace-of-mind they need, to do their job well.
- Consistent 24/7 availability
- Calmer, more satisfied staff
- Improved hygiene
- Full control of inventory
- Significant time, cost and manpower savings
Customer Testimonials
Customer Needs
The hospital’s surgical department needed a better way for nurses and doctors to get clean scrubs at the start of each shift. Since no one can enter an operating theater without scrubs, an easily accessible, reliable supply of scrubs is vital. Scrubs were available for collection from the inventory room, but – inconveniently – only during weekday morning hours. Workers hoarded scrubs or kept them in a shared cupboard. The department’s Chief Nurse was spending two hours each morning sorting out scrub availability issues. Time was wasted, items went missing, and each day started with unnecessary aggravation and stress.
Requirements
EMMS Nazareth Hospital needed to streamline scrub management in the surgical department, to ensure quick and easy access to hygienic, well-fitting scrubs around the clock.
- Save time and stress: EMMS Nazareth Hospital wanted to save time and reduce stress at the start of each shift by eliminating the need to wait for inventory room service or search for clean scrubs in the right color and size.
- Increase availability: The surgical department required clean scrubs to be available at all times, including when emergency surgery was needed at nights and weekends.
- Prevent hoarding: The system needed to predictably provide clean scrubs in the right sizes and colors, so staff would not feel the need to stockpile.
- Reduce loss: The department needed to be able to control distribution, to ensure staff returned scrubs to the right place and that unauthorized personnel did not take them.
- Improve hygiene: The department wanted to replace manual distribution with an automated system that ensured all scrubs were clean and untouched prior to use.
The Solution
After the surgical department’s Chief Nurse recommended the Polytex automated workwear management solution, having used it in his prior job at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital, a dispensing unit and return unit were installed in the EMMS Nazareth Hospital surgical department in 2018.
- Always available, centralized distribution: Using a personalized swipe card, staff take clean scrubs and return soiled scrubs from dedicated Polytex machines that are conveniently located in the department and operate 24/7, with no dependence on personnel.
- Quality control: Operating room staff know they can always get hygienic scrubs that are untouched by anyone else, in the right color and size, in a matter of seconds – crucial for daily work and even more so for emergency surgery. Used scrubs are no longer stuffed back into a random cupboard or left around the hospital. And only authorized personnel have access to surgical scrubs.
- Improved inventory management: Users can only take 1 set of scrubs at a time, as they must return a set before taking a clean one. Workwear management is simplified by automatic alerts, sent by the system when sizes are missing, or the machine needs to be refilled. The ability to easily add or remove users further enhances inventory control.
Results
Installing a Polytex workwear management system has given the EMMS Nazareth Hospital Operating rooms department much-needed consistency in scrubs availability and distribution, reducing operating staff members’ stress and workwear management costs.
- Increased efficiency
- Surgical department staff no longer have to come in early or spend the first part of their day tracking down the appropriate scrubs. The Chief Nurse is freed from helping workers sort out workwear related issues, which used to take two hours or more each day. Limited inventory room hours no longer impact availability.
- Tight inventory control
- Managers have full control and visibility into scrubs usage and inventory levels. Only authorized personnel can take scrubs and only in the permitted quantities.
- Financial savings
- Saving time translates into financial gain. With no lines to collect scrubs at the start of shifts, workers can begin work quicker. Better control of inventory means fewer scrubs are needed, reducing annual purchase costs. With the automated dispensing and return, there is no need to pay for a laundry worker to manually hand out scrubs.
- Happier, more productive staff
- With hygienic, ironed uniforms always available in the right size and color, the medical team has one less worry, and can better focus on patient care right from the start of their day.
