Journal of healthcare materiel management最新文献

Carpet as a floorcovering choice in healthcare facilities is increasing in popularity. Technological advances have made carpet an appropriate choice not only for common areas and offices, but also for patient rooms. Color options are diverse, and can serve patient care concerns, such as orientation for patients with Alzheimer's disease. Carpet performance is related to its density, construction and fiber/yarn type. Many carpet types have antimicrobial treatments to aid in reducing the propagation and spread of microorganisms. Carpet is also tested for emissions of volatile organic compounds based on industry criteria. Proper maintenance is essential to maintaining carpet appearance and useful life.

Over the last ten years, separate and repeated attempts by Cardiology Management, Materials Management, and physicians to effectively reduce pacemaker costs had led to limited successes of short duration. Issues of physician choice, clinical application of advancing technology and long-term relationships with a variety of vendor representatives had usually conspired to overwhelm any incremental inroads into manufacturers' pricing structures. A collaborative review of past practices resulted in the creation of a multi-disciplinary task force charged with two goals: maintain physician choice and reduce costs. In the resulting process, no manufacturer was eliminated, vendors accepted all of the risks and received no guarantees of market share, and device specifications were matched to clinical indications in a preferred device matrix. The task force met both of its goals as evidenced by a 18.9% decrease in annual expenditures for pacemakers and by a 27% shift in device use based upon physician choice.

Virtually every hospital has imposed guidelines or controls on one or more administrative service expenses. However, the actual deployment of such strategies is often voluntary, decentralized, disjointed and episodic. An alternative approach is to cluster administrative elements across hospital departments and make them the responsibility of a dedicated manager. This approach treats administrative services as an organizing principle with uniform, predictable standards of service and cost. Customer requirements for products and services are met without the need for them to physically manage that process. Materiel managers can demonstrate a leadership role by applying their professionalism and know-how to a set of products and services traditionally ignored or dealt with in an uncoordinated manner. While some initial resistance can be expected as traditional barriers are disassembled, the results should be very rewarding for the hospital and materiel manager alike.

The University of California at San Francisco Medical Center has made a commitment to upgrade its information and telecommunications systems infrastructure. One of the several projects being undertaken by the Medical Center, the Intelligent Console Project, demonstrates how integrating different systems, databases and technologies can improve the quality and accessibility of information, while reducing costs and stream-lining administrative activities. The Intelligent Console acts as an interface mechanism for the several constituent systems and data-bases of the Medical Center and provides a single, front-end control console by which operators can support communications using standardized procedures. Much paperwork has been eliminated and operator training and scheduling streamlined. Equipment consolidation has also freed up space at the Medical Center.