Creative Thinking Solves Challenges of Tracking and Repairing Surgical Instruments at Main Line Health

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

TRE, Total Repair

Main Line Health (MLH) has partnered with TRE, Total Repair Express, to repair and maintain all its surgical instruments and set up an inventory system with ABACUS System Priority ONE™.” According to Chris Torres, Vice President of Materiel Management for Main Line Health, advantages to the new system will increase patient safety, increase physician satisfaction and save costs on repairs and loss of equipment.

In photo from left: Kathy Mazza, TRE regional vice president; Dan Benson, Director of Supply Chain Logistics, MLH; Peter Gergely, TRE vice president of Technical Operations; Vince Tarentella and Tony Seliga, TRE instrument repair specialists; and Chris Torres, vice president of Materiel Management, MLH.

The repair depot is centrally located at the Bryn Mawr Hospital Health Center in Newtown Square to serve all four of Main Line Health’s acute-care hospitals of Bryn Mawr, Lankenau, Paoli and Riddle. Each year the health system’s Central Sterile Supply Departments inspect, maintain and sterilize tens of thousands of surgical instruments.

(BRYN MAWR, Pa.)—Behind the scenes at hospitals there is a vital department called Central Sterile Supply with dedicated staff that inspect, maintain and sterilize thousands of surgical instruments each year. In addition, repair work is routinely needed and performed by an outside vendor. It’s an incredible undertaking, especially for Main Line Health (MLH) and its four acute-care hospitals of Bryn Mawr, Lankenau, Paoli and Riddle.

To manage this job, Main Line Health has partnered with one company to set up an on-site centrally located Surgical Repair Instrument Depot and implemented an instrument tracking system with another company.

Chris Torres, vice president of Materiel Management for Main Line Health, said advantages to the system will be increased patient safety, increased physician satisfaction and cost savings for repairs and loss of equipment. “We were brainstorming and asking ourselves how we were going to set up a system to mark and repair tens of thousands of pieces of equipment each year without adding more resources and staff,” she explained. “Our solution was to partner with TRE, Total Repair Express, to repair and maintain all of Main Line Health’s instruments and to set up the inventory system with ABACUS System Priority ONE™.”

According to Dan Benson, Director of Supply Chain Logistics, “this new system has taken us to a whole new level and given us an incredible amount of control over the whole process. He said previously, TRE arrived once or twice a month to do the work from a mobile unit, now the repair depot is centrally located at the Bryn Mawr Hospital Health Center in Newtown Square to serve all four of the acute-care hospitals.

“Our state of the art lab features the equipment and staff needed to perform not only basic maintenance but more extensive repairs on surgical instruments,” said Kathy Mazza, regional vice president for TRE, which has national headquarters in Hillsborough New Jersey. “Our purpose is to provide our expertise and service to assist in improving physician satisfaction and to become an integrated part of the Main Line Health team in assuring the best patient care.”

TRE has partnered with Main Line Health and also with Applied Logic, Inc., using the ABACUS System Priority ONE™. Mazza said the repair and maintenance process will be ‘peening’ each instrument with a unique barcode that will identify and track the instruments. This code will interface with the ABACUS system to assist in history of use and location of surgical sets, ensuring optimum utilization and functionality of each instrument.

“The technologies developed by Applied Logic and being deployed throughout Main Line Health are state-of-the-art clinical practice software focused on delivering detailed communications between the surgeon and his support staff,” added Bill Terry, CEO of Applied Logic, Inc. “The outcome is unprecedented improvements in patient care and patient safety.”

About Main Line Health
Main Line Health (MLH) is a non-profit health system serving portions of Philadelphia and its western suburbs. Founded in 1985, MLH includes Bryn Mawr Hospital, Lankenau Hospital, Paoli Hospital, Riddle Hospital, Bryn Mawr Rehabilitation Hospital; The Home Care Network; Lankenau Institute for Medical Research; Main Line HealthCare (physician network); Main Line Health Centers; Main Line Health Laboratories; Mid County Senior Services; and Mirmont Treatment Center. The mission of Main Line Health is to provide a comprehensive range of safe, high quality health services, complemented by related education and research activities that meet the healthcare needs and improve the quality of life in the communities we serve.

Main Line Health is part of Jefferson Health System (JHS), founded in 1996, whose members also include Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals and Magee Rehab.

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Contact
Bridget Therriault
Manager of Communications
Office: 484-337-8763
Cell: 484-222-9154
therriaultb@mlhs.org