Columbus Community Hospital steps towards lean hospital materials management
Columbus Community Hospital is a 65-bed hospital, sprawled over 80 acres in the community of Columbus, Nebraska. It features a new hospital facility and a medical office building. Like many healthcare facilities, Columbus Community Hospital was looking for ways to increase patient and staff satisfaction by improving efficiency, while also recognizing substantial cost savings.
CHALLENGE
Columbus Community Hospital is a 65-bed hospital, sprawled over 80 acres in the community of Columbus, Nebraska. It features a new hospital facility and a medical office building. Like many healthcare facilities, Columbus Community Hospital was looking for ways to increase patient and staff satisfaction by improving efficiency, while also recognizing substantial cost savings.
The hospital’s materials management team faced several challenges, including occasional stockouts of supplies and maintaining tedious daily materials replenishment and fulfillment processes manually. The consequences of these challenges led to staff communication issues, unnecessary time away from patients, and the department performing non-value-added tasks. All these issues combined made the case to find a better solution a priority.
SOLUTION:
Columbus Community Hospital chose the StockBox, an inventory management system that incorporates RFID technology and lean Kanban methods to create a simple, effective means for efficient stock management. Plus, six FrameWRX® shelving sections with divided bins provide a customizable point-of-need solution tied closely to clinical workflow to ensure that supplies are at the right place at the right time.
In just five short months, Columbus Community Hospital has realized an incredible return on investment. Implementing the FrameWRX solution, with StockBox, has turned what was a 5-step process into a 2-step process for inventory management.
