Every hospital and every clinic, no matter what its focus, always has one thing in mind: the well-being and recovery of their patients. All functional areas of a hospital therefore work hand in hand to achieve this goal. The Central Sterile Supply Department has a responsible task: medical devices must be prepared in accordance with certain standards, regulations, guidelines and the Commission for Hospital Hygiene and Infection Prevention/Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices recommendations and made available to all patient-oriented departments.
The Central Sterile Supply Department (hereinafter referred to as CSSD) of the Robert Bosch Hospital in Stuttgart also assumes such a responsible task. This is because medical products are also processed here. Among other things, it is important that the reprocessing processes are documented and that the medical devices are reprocessed according to specified packing lists and assembled error-free into a wide variety of sets. At the beginning of last year, the decision had already been made in Stuttgart to improve the IT system in the CSSD and to improve the IT system there, to equip "packing stations" with new PCs. The Stuttgart hospital received support for this project from Rein Medical GmbH (hereinafter referred to as Rein Medical).
QUALITY ASSURANCE THROUGH DIGITALISATION
The CSSD is a highly hygienic area. In order to supply all patient-oriented departments within a hospital with appropriately reprocessed medical products, numerous laws, regulations, guidelines and the Commission for Hospital Hygiene and Infection Prevention/Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices recommendations must be strictly adhered to; accordingly, procedural and process steps are precisely defined. The primary goal is the delivery of faultlessly assembled and flawless medical products to the respective department - as is the case in Stuttgart. "The principle of continuous improvement was already named by our founder Robert Bosch in 1940 as the foundation of our work. This is another reason why our CSSD is certified according to EN ISO 13485," says Bruno Dos Santos, deputy head of the CSSD at the Robert Bosch Hospital and project manager, underlining the quality standards within the company. "We should always strive to improve the existing situation - we also took this maxim of our founder and benefactor Robert Bosch to heart and considered last year how we could further optimise our own processes," says Dos Santos, describing the initial situation.
EXTERNAL PARTNERS SUPPORT THROUGH PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE
"We knew we wanted to improve both our existing system and our IT infrastructure," explains Jochen Geiger, head of the Central Sterile Supply Department at Robert Bosch Hospital. "We were therefore looking for a partner who could equip the 18 packing stations in our department according to our requirements," Geiger continued. Support for those responsible in Stuttgart was recently provided by Rein Medical. The Mönchengladbach-based experts for medical IT develop and produce hardware and software and, in addition to the complete integration of video solutions for operating theatres, also offer hardware whose hygienic properties meet the high demands of everyday hospital life. "Our specialist trade partner Roeser Medical (hereinafter referred to as Roeser) recommended Rein Medical to us and we were happy to follow this recommendation", Dos Santos describes the first contact with the external partner. "We had already discussed our special requirements for the CSSD's new IT with Roeser in advance," says Dos Santos, praising the support provided by the partner. "We could trust that these would then also be implemented", Dos Santos continued.
Klaus Schleehuber, medical product consultant at Roeser, also sees the close co-operation at this point as a success factor: "I have been looking after the Robert Bosch Hospital myself for many years and am on site at least once a week. This enabled us to provide optimum support in analysing the requirements for the equipment of the packing stations."
CLEARLY DEFINE - AND IMPLEMENT - REQUIREMENTS
For the future IT support of the CSSD in Stuttgart, criteria for the equipment of the packing stations had already been defined in advance. In addition to the special hygienic properties of the PCs, the main requirements were to ensure optimum image quality and user-friendly operation. "With regard to the PCs, we were particularly interested in simple operation, the ability to disinfect and the sealing of the housing," explains Dos Santos. In order to meet all these demands, Rein Medical recommended to the responsible persons in Stuttgart the CLINIO 324 C, developed and manufactured in-house, an all-in-one PC for everyday medical use, which has a completely flat front side without drip edge or operating elements that protrude, does completely without ventilation slots and is therefore absolutely hygienic.
"Our CLINIOS are very powerful and can be adapted and extended as required," says Bernd Schmidtke, Head of Sales Germany at Rein Medical, explaining the advantages of the product. "That's why we consciously equipped all PCs in Stuttgart with touch screens," Schmidtke continues. Thanks to the touch screen, input comfort for CSSD staff has increased significantly, and input security in Stuttgart has also increased noticeably. "In the beginning, our employees were still a little sceptical about the touch screens," reports Dos Santos, "but now everyone is very happy and doesn't want to miss the screen operation anymore!
The program applications and packing lists required at the packing stations are displayed on the screens and can be easily edited, touch screens can also be operated with gloves.
EXTENSIVE TESTS MAKE THE DECISION EASIER
After the presentation, the CLINIO PCs were first comprehensively tested in the CSSD. Rein Medical had provided the Robert Bosch Hospital with a test installation for this purpose. Throughout the entire test phase, the CSSD was also able to rely on the company's own IT department. On the one hand, the IT managers in Stuttgart evaluated both the quality and the performance of the Panel PCs. On the other hand, the IT department of the Robert Bosch Hospital was also responsible for the installation of the application software. "We are happy that we were also able to support the test phase from our side," reports Patrick Blank, project manager for IT at the Robert Bosch Hospital. "Among other things, we have ensured the compatibility of the application software for the endurance test," adds Blank.
Both partners praise the excellent and constructive co-operation. "In the course of the extensive examination we were also able to express wishes which were promptly and above all very simply taken up by Rein Medical", Dos Santos is satisfied. In the meantime, PCs from Rein Medical are in use at all 18 sterile goods packing stations in the CSSD of the Robert Bosch Hospital. Thanks to the support of the hospital's IT department, the roll-out was completed on time after the test phase, over a period of only 4 weeks.
COMPELLING PRODUCT CHARACTERISTICS AND RELIABLE CO-OPERATION ENSURE SUCCESS
In Stuttgart, however, people are not only satisfied with Rein Medical with regard to product and process optimisation. The final conclusion of the entire project and the installed PCs is also consistently positive. "Right from the start, we felt that our contact persons at Rein Medical and Roeser were the best for us and that we were in competent hands," sums up Bruno Dos Santos. "The co-operation between all participants was very close and smooth," says Dos Santos. "This was very important to us because we wanted to work closely with our own IT department on this project." The advantages of the new IT equipment at the Stuttgart CSSD can be clearly stated: "Our packing stations are now significantly more hygienic, user-friendly, ergonomic and safe," says Dos Santos, summarising what he sees as the greatest benefit in one sentence. In addition, the deputy head of department also sees the convenient operation of the application software and the compactness of the CLINIOs as significant advantages.
