5S for OR Equipment Room

Before picture:

This is one of our equipment room. On the day I took this picture, the room was completely full with equipment, tables, chairs, suction units. It was simply impossible to find an item or retrieve it;  there was no space left for accessing any item in the room.

This seems to be a common occurrence in hospitals: equipment is replaced, and old equipment is not removed from the unit, but placed in a corner. The hallways accumulate more and more items, and transporting a patient turns into an adventure. Patients are always amazed by the amount of items that seem to invade every square foot of space, and also by our ability to steer the stretchers around all these obstacles.

There is a definite need for improvement here. So, I decided to start small, with one room of equipment at one end of the hallway. By using the 5S Lean tool, these are the steps taken for starting this improvement project:




1. Sort:
- equipment was tagged according to service and frequency of use
- the equipment that was not used anymore was removed from the room
- as much as possible, equipment was kept grouped under same service

2. Straighten
- once the frequency of use was established, the items used more often were placed closer to the door, and rarely used items were placed in the back
- visual controls (black floor tape) was used to assign the space occupied by the item; name tags have been placed on the wall above the item

3. Shine
- floors have been cleaned and equipment dusted; old tape was removed from floors and walls
- covers are now protecting the equipment from dust

4. Standardize
- a two step rule has been created to make this arrangement work: in order to place a piece of equipment in that room, the equipment must be 'tagged on the wall, and within a taped space on the floor'
**currently work in progress

5. Sustain
**currently looking at methods and ways to sustain

Stay tuned for picture after, updates and struggles!