Authors (including presenting author) :
HUI FH(1),LEUNG TF(1),CHU KW(1),WONG YH(1),SIN CK(2),CHAN WF(3),CHUNG WK(4)
Affiliation :
(1)Operating Room,United Christian Hospital,(2)Planning & Commissioning, United Christian Hospital,(3)Building Services Department,United Christian Hospital,(4)Facility Management Department, United Christian Hospital.
Introduction :
There are 1362 surgical instrument sets in Operating Room Instrument Store (ORIS) and the average weight of each tray or box is about 8-10kg. Air duct cleansing in operation room usually scheduled in December every year and ORIS staff has to transfer instrument tray from electrical mobile shelving system (EMSS) to instrument trolley, move them to a spare operating room and put them into temporary instrument racks within few hours. All instrument trays have to move back to cleaned ORIS and transfer back to EMSS within few hours. The repeated physical motion on transferring and lifting these instrument trays placed significant physical load to the body. Staff usually reported to have back pain after completing this task. The potential for developing work related injury can’t be overlooked. A quality improvement project was conducted during UCH construction advanced works of the Hospital Expansion Project of ORIS.
Objectives :
Install new mobile light weight instrument racks in ORIS.
Methodology :
A discussion meeting was conducted between Hospital Planning and Commission Team, Operating Room, Facility Management Department and Building Services to select suitable new mobile light weight instrument racks. Features of the racks, 1) The rack with instruments can be moved to anywhere by one person. 2) The loading capacity and space increased by 25%. 3) The height of each section is flexible and easy adjustable. The Advanced Works was started in August 2020. Over 1364 instrument sets was moved to operating theater from August 2020 to October 2020. New mobile instrument racks were purchased and setup between on September 2020 to June 2021. Instrument tray’s weight was clearly labeled and the location of relevant in new rack which were arranged according to principles indicated in OSH manual. Training workshops were conducted to teach ORIS staff on proper use of the new instrument racks. All instrument trays were transfers to the new racked after staff training.
Result & Outcome :
Eleven ORIS staff attended the training session in June 2021. The weight of all instrument trays were labeled. In total, 1362 instrument sets were relocated to appropriate sections, 98 instrument trays which is over 12 kg are placed in easily accessible section. There were 64% and 70% reduction in manpower and time respectively for relocating the instrument trays to spared operating room during air duct cleansing 2021. No staff reported to have back pain after air duct cleansing.
