The need for controlled and efficient distribution of medical and surgical supplies is a critical concern for maintaining quality patient service and profitability in hospital operations. Material handling can account for a large percentage of operating costs and have a direct influence on the quality of care received by patients.
One way to address these issues is through the integration of automated storage and retrieval systems such as horizontal carousels, vertical carousels and Vertical Lift Modules (VLMs) for material handling operations. Automated storage and retrieval systems, when properly planned and integrated into daily operations, can solve many of the problems associated with floor space utilization, productivity and labor as well as information and inventory management. These systems can contribute to an improvement in patient experience by helping to assure items necessary for their well being care are delivered correctly and on time.
In hospital operations, horizontal carousels have proven to be good investments in reducing overall operating costs through a combination of recovered floor space and improved order picking efficiency. Horizontal carousels consist of an oval track with rotating bins containing shelves that deliver items to the operator, eliminating walk and search time. They can be equipped with pick-to-light technologies to indicate shelf level and quantity of items to pick, making batch picking simple, fast and easy. The high-density design of these systems reduces storage space requirements by 60% or more in many applications within a hospital while, Carousels and VLMs help eliminate walk and search time, while increasing the number of inventory turns and reducing manpower requirements up to 2/3 when compared with traditional shelving. Inventory management software can be added to provide order processing, bar coding capability, security tracking, restricted access, and status reports.
When used in conjunction with pick and put-to-light systems and inventory management software, order picking accuracy can reach 99.99%+ levels. These units can also allow complete access to items even when power is interrupted.
Saving Space and Money
At Aspirus Wausau Hospital, the Supply Processing and Dispatch (SPD) department was able to reclaim 75% of the floor space occupied by its old shelving and cart storage system by installing a KardexRemstar automated horizontal carousel system.
Using the former storage units, the SPD staff manually picked medical and surgical supplies for daily use. That system allowed 10,000 items to be processed per month, at a cost of 60 cents per transaction. The horizontal carousel system allows 21,000 items to be processed per month at a cost of 7 cents per transaction, a savings of more than 88% per transaction.
Using the manual system, Aspirus Wausau Hospital administrators estimate that there were approximately 36 errors per month. Since the installation of the horizontal carousel system, picking has been error free.
The Aspirus Wausau Hospital installation includes an integrated pod (workstation) of four horizontal carousels with Pick Light Towers, which direct operators to the correct storage location, and inventory management software. The pod configuration allows an operator to pick from one active carousel while the others are pre-positioning to be picked the moment the operator is ready. The software adds a flexibility to the system that allows batch picking, single picks and stat picks. The carousels hold 2,296 different types of medical supplies for the surgical departments and other inpatient units. This translates to a more than 254,000 inventory items. Approximately 99% of the orders are processed through the horizontal carousel system.
Centralizing Storage and Retrieval Operations
In another application of the horizontal carousel workstation concept, two hospitals in Canada combined their separate medical supply warehousing activities under a central warehouse plan.
The two hospitals, Children's & Woman's Health Center of British Columbia (C&W), Vancouver and Richmond General Hospital, Richmond B.C., created a consolidated warehouse that has become the central receiving, storage, and distribution point for all non-pharmaceutical supplies for C&W, Richmond General Hospital, Sunnyhill Health Centre for Children, and an extended care facility. It also provides warehouse and distribution services to a range of community health clinics and the Canadian Blood Service. The central warehouse is operated by the Logistics Operations Department at C&W.
Four KardexRemstar carousels with 50 bins, two Pick Light Towers, plus put lights on the workstation and inventory management software comprises the central storage system. The carousels store some 70% of SKUs handled by the warehouse, including bandages, needles, gauze, laboratory devices, catheters, masks, and respiratory devices stored in totes and cartons.
Prior to the consolidation and automation, C&W picked entirely manually from shelves and racks via paper pick lists. The carousels are inherently more space efficient because aisles are unnecessary. The carousel system has improved throughput by as much as 500%.
The manual pick rate had been only 35 or 40 lines an hour. The pick rate from the carousel system is 150 to 200 lines an hour. Inventory turns have also improved by more than 40%.
The software-driven carousels stay several picks ahead of the operator, automatically turning via the shortest path to pre-position and present the correct carriers for picking. The picker never needs to wait for a carrier. Pick Light Towers tell the worker which shelf on which carrier to pick from, and the quantity to assure maximum accuracy.
To speed picking and enhance worker ergonomics, the highest volume supplies are positioned in a golden zone (from knee-to-shoulder height) that minimizes operator stooping and ladder climbing. Up to 10 orders are simultaneously batch picked and placed in totes at the cluster's workstation. Put-lights direct the operator to place the correct quantity of supplies into each tote. When the batch of totes is complete, they are consolidated with the bulk items and transported to a marshalling area for delivery.
The carousel system's control software is electronically linked to the inventory host system. The host provides both picking and replenishment inventory tracking, maintains the carrier and shelf location numbers, and processes incoming orders from the various health care facility clients. The carousel control software prints barcode labels that are affixed to the empty totes by the picker.
Selecting the Right System
Automated storage and retrieval systems can help hospitals reduce operating costs significantly in hospital surgical and medical supply operations. Other hospital operational areas that can benefit from include clinical labs, maintenance and food service. In addition to horizontal carousels, vertical carousels and Vertical Lift Modules can also improve materials handling efficiency.
As with any major investment, however, a comparison of the costs of the new system vs. the old system must be made. In order to compare the costs of automated storage and retrieval systems to conventional systems, the operative data is the amount of floor space occupied by current equipment, cost per square foot, the number of employees handling daily transactions, number of transactions performed daily, average labor cost and other information that affects system costs. An installation specialist can enter these numbers into a standard Return On Investment/Internal Rate of Return (ROI/IRR) formula to do this.
KardexRemstar Inc., a company of the Kardex AG Group is a leading provider of automated storage and retrieval systems for office, government, institutions and warehouses. For information about the KardexRemstar hospital applications, call 800-639-5805 or visit the KardexRemstar web site at www.KardexRemstar.com.