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O U T P AT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 4
IDEAS
That Work
SMART STORAGE
Check for Outdated Supplies Quickly and Easily
I
've been a surgical
administrator for
close to 20 years
and have never seen a
process for eliminat-
ing outdated supplies
from stock that does-
n't involve staff spend-
ing hours on end look-
ing at individual items.
If you've run into the same issue
at your facility, try this simple and effective process:
• Assign each month of the year a colored dot.
• As you open supplies or medications that arrive at the center,
check the outdate. Place the colored dot of the arrival month on each
item and note the year the item expires on the sticker.
• At the end of each month, staff check for the next month's outdate
color. For example, let's say October's color is pink. During the last
week of September, staff will check storage areas for pink dots. When
they find one, they check the year written on the dot and remove cur-
rent-year items.
• If items with intact packaging don't expire, note that on a label
stuck to the storage bin.
Staff spends more time on the front end opening boxes of supplies
and applying the stickers. However, they save time on the back end
each month checking storage areas only for specific colored dots.
Alisa Fischer-Hurst, RN, MHSA, CASC
Orange Park (Fla.) Surgery Center
MONTH BY MONTH Color-coded dot stickers are
a quick and easy way to identify expired supplies.
Alisa
Fischer-Hurst,
RN,
MHSA,
CASC
alisa.fischer@hcahealthcare.com
