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The elusive dissapearing supplies!!
I work for a medium-sized non-profit 911 service. We have 6 ambulances full-time ambulances in our fleet. One big problem we have is large amounts of supplies being "used" when there aren't enough calls to warrant that many supplies being used. I.E, 6+ cric kits gone over the course of 6 months when there has only been one cric in the last 2 years!! We are constanly going through way more supplies than what should have been used on a run. I am curious to hear how other services handle restocking their ambulances. We currently have one big supply room that all of our ambulance restock from. The room is open to all to come in and get what they need (or want). We also have huge problems with overstocking the ambulances despite having an inventory list on all trucks stating what is supposed to be on each truck. Just looking for ideas that work in other services. Thanks in advance for any ideas!!!
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Scott Sigerfoos on -
Thank you!! Those are great ideas. We have been looking at locking down our supply room and making it mandatory to have a filled out list of items prior to getting the stock you need. I also feel it would be a benefit to tag the cabinets but I know that will be a fight as will this entire process. Thanks for the feedback!!
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Permalink Reply by danny on
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The private service I work for solved the problem real easy like they put a lock on the supply room door and did an iventory on all items. We now have supply techs the crews fill out supply request and the tech fill them. On the trucks themselves we have what we call tubes you know the clear plastic storage containers. Each container is labeled, truama etc and what is in each box labeled on each box. Each box is sealed with a green security tab and when the box is used we seal it with a red security tab and take it to a resupply closet that has additional tubes or containers. Each container is also numbered.
The dissapearing supplies have dwindled to nothing now. It is all about accountablity hope this helps.
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Permalink Reply by mediccjh on -
Use vending machines. Each employee gets an ID number, and you can track who is using what.
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Permalink Reply by Terri on
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I am the purchasing agent for my department, so understand your problem totally. Our personnel use the supplies for personal use, and to fill their packs each carries in their private vehicle. We roll on a lot of calls in our own vehicles, and the worst thing to do is show up on a full arrest and have nothing with you. So we make sure they have whatever they need. Plus we furnish all the officers here with small kits and BVM's for their patrol cars. It makes it really hard when you have a combination full time/volunteer service, the volunteers think it is the full time personnel who should be doing all the restocking, no matter who was on the call. Our supplies are kept partially in a supply closet, and partially in cabinets in the bay. So there is easy access. We do have check lists, but hey...if you use one, why not replace it with 4, that way you won't have to worry about it for awhile. And letting the purchasing agent know you used the last of anything? Oh my...that is too hard to do. We do keep trauma kits, intubation kits, drug kits, etc. sealed. Or are supposed to. After using it, you are supposed to replace the items then seal the kit so everyone knows that is complete. But when you have volunteers that come back in off a transfer (most of our transfers last 4 hours or longer) and have to go to work at their "real" jobs in 30 minutes, it generally doesn't get done. We tried locking things up, but the volunteers just wouldn't worry about replacing anything. That became a huge problem. We also seal the cabinets with breakable tags, that helps some (ours are red). Our service is owned by the city, and we also get some supplies from the hospital, but most I order. What disappears faster from my supply shelves is gloves. They use them for everything, on duty or personal.
Truthfully...I am not sure there IS any easy answer.
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Permalink Reply by ArcticKat on -
We use a USP tracking system similar to the scanning codes done at the local grocery store. All inventory has an inventory tag. One person is responsible for tracking the inventory and placing it into the store room. When the medics need something from the store room they scan their card with the bar code to identify who took what, then they scan each item they are taking from the store room. We're also working on a way to take the bar code from what has been used in the ambulance so that we can have a running inventory of what each ambulance contains. It hasn't been working too well though because most of the wrappers are contaminated or tossed before the unit returns to base and management doesn't want to have a negative impact on patient care by making the medic scan each bandaid used on a patient.
The inventory control manager can easily run a report of what should be in the store room and inventory the supplies to see if they match. If something is disappearing faster than it should the store room video is reviewed to determine who is taking more than they should. Anyone caught is warned, repeat offenders are suspended for 1 day, then 3 days, and finally 6 days. If they are still stealing stuff after that they're fired.
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Permalink Reply by Darin Moore on -
can any one tell me what kind of inventory managment software work for a supply room?
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Permalink Reply by Scott Sigerfoos on
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Thanks for all of the information and suggestions that you all use. I have a lot of things to consider!!
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Permalink Reply by ArcticKat on
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Darin Moore said:can any one tell me what kind of inventory managment software work for a supply room?
http://www.waspbarcode.com/
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Permalink Reply by Angie Taylor on -
yours are disappearing?? mine are reproducing!!!
i'm the bag Nazi for my airmedical base. it's my job to make sure all our bags have all the necessary equipment and what not. it's also my job to make sure the aircraft is properly stocked.
since i took this position, i've removed more superfluous CRAP from bags and aircraft. what alarms me most is the overproliferation of RESTRAINTS!! i just don't even want to know what they're doing when i'm not around.
check your outdates. believe it or not, IV needles EXPIRE. how bizarre is that? however, crich kits disappearing is just wrong. that's not exactly something you can use at home to fix your friend's hangover.
perhaps locking the stock room with keys for ALS providers only would help. i've seen that work at all my jobs. just a thought.
good luck! and if you ever need soft wrist restraints, look me up. I HAVE PLENTY. :)
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Permalink Reply by Scott Sigerfoos on
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LOL. I will keep that in mind for my next restraint order!! Thanks for the info. I think we are going to lock down the supplies and make the crew utilize a resupply sheet to document the supplies they are getting. Hopefully this should help.
Angie Taylor said:yours are disappearing?? mine are reproducing!!!
i'm the bag Nazi for my airmedical base. it's my job to make sure all our bags have all the necessary equipment and what not. it's also my job to make sure the aircraft is properly stocked.
since i took this position, i've removed more superfluous CRAP from bags and aircraft. what alarms me most is the overproliferation of RESTRAINTS!! i just don't even want to know what they're doing when i'm not around.
check your outdates. believe it or not, IV needles EXPIRE. how bizarre is that? however, crich kits disappearing is just wrong. that's not exactly something you can use at home to fix your friend's hangover.
perhaps locking the stock room with keys for ALS providers only would help. i've seen that work at all my jobs. just a thought.
good luck! and if you ever need soft wrist restraints, look me up. I HAVE PLENTY. :)
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Permalink Reply by Sophia on -
Scott,
I completed an entire list of supplies we use on our service. On Monday's, the EMTs and Paramedics on the ambulances are responsible for ordering supplies for the week at each of our stations. Whoever is on the ambulance, must order the supplies. The paramedics are responsible for the ALS equipment and the EMTs are responsible for ordering the BLS. We have one "central supply" which I have a key to and someone I have deemed our "supply tech". We have closets at each of our stations that have bins in them with labels of what the contents should be and the quantity. On my supply list, I have put quantities as well and a number of when it should be ordered.
The supply tech fills the requests from the central supply and places them in bins where the crews can pick them up and then they take them back to their own stations and put them in the closets. In the meantime, I have an equipment and medication disposal list as well. Anything that expires or is damaged must go on this list and it's to be turned in once a month. We usually do this on the first day of the month, regardless of it being a holiday. The cabinets in the back of the ambulances are tagged. The crews have each cabinet labeled and there is a master list that states what equipment is to be in what cabinet with a total. Once all of the contents are in the cabinet, it's tagged. The tags are red and have numbers. The crews do not have to retag each cabinet after every run but before the next shift comes in, if equipment from a cabinet has been used, that cabinet had better be tagged again. At the beginning of each shift, each new crew member should always be able to come on and if they catch that "as soon as you walk in the door run", they should have EVERYTHING they need on the ambulance.
If they change a tag, there is a log that has the number of the tag that they need to fill in with the number, the cabinet that was tagged, the date and their name. That way, if something is missing, there is accountability.
Believe it or not, this has led to accountability of our supplies as well. After every run, we have a charge form, on that form, they mark the equipment they used. We match up the equipment to each run and what we're ordering. I would like to find an easier way but trust me, it actually took longer for me to type this then the actual procedures are performing them.
I have thought about purchasing one of those bar code wands but I don't know enough about them yet. We have even seen those "snack" machines where you can put the supplies in them and push the button to get your supply..........
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Permalink Reply by Scott Sigerfoos on
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Sophia,
Thank you for the information. You guys have a lot of good practices. I have been thinking about tagging the compartments in the trucks but haven't been quite sure how to do it. It sounds like it works pretty well for you. I think you gave me some good information that I can use. Thanks!!
Sophia said:Scott,
I completed an entire list of supplies we use on our service. On Monday's, the EMTs and Paramedics on the ambulances are responsible for ordering supplies for the week at each of our stations. Whoever is on the ambulance, must order the supplies. The paramedics are responsible for the ALS equipment and the EMTs are responsible for ordering the BLS. We have one "central supply" which I have a key to and someone I have deemed our "supply tech". We have closets at each of our stations that have bins in them with labels of what the contents should be and the quantity. On my supply list, I have put quantities as well and a number of when it should be ordered.
The supply tech fills the requests from the central supply and places them in bins where the crews can pick them up and then they take them back to their own stations and put them in the closets. In the meantime, I have an equipment and medication disposal list as well. Anything that expires or is damaged must go on this list and it's to be turned in once a month. We usually do this on the first day of the month, regardless of it being a holiday. The cabinets in the back of the ambulances are tagged. The crews have each cabinet labeled and there is a master list that states what equipment is to be in what cabinet with a total. Once all of the contents are in the cabinet, it's tagged. The tags are red and have numbers. The crews do not have to retag each cabinet after every run but before the next shift comes in, if equipment from a cabinet has been used, that cabinet had better be tagged again. At the beginning of each shift, each new crew member should always be able to come on and if they catch that "as soon as you walk in the door run", they should have EVERYTHING they need on the ambulance.
If they change a tag, there is a log that has the number of the tag that they need to fill in with the number, the cabinet that was tagged, the date and their name. That way, if something is missing, there is accountability.
Believe it or not, this has led to accountability of our supplies as well. After every run, we have a charge form, on that form, they mark the equipment they used. We match up the equipment to each run and what we're ordering. I would like to find an easier way but trust me, it actually took longer for me to type this then the actual procedures are performing them.
I have thought about purchasing one of those bar code wands but I don't know enough about them yet. We have even seen those "snack" machines where you can put the supplies in them and push the button to get your supply..........
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