
1 minute read
Reducing Time Taken to Gather Equipment for Venepuncture and Cannulation
1) Understanding the Problem & Setting our Aim
• Timely and efficient gathering of equipment for basic procedures including venepuncture and cannulation is critical for doctors and other healthcare professionals, particularly when on - call, during emergencies and on unfamiliar wards.
Advertisement
• At our hospital, the Royal Devon & Exeter (RD&E), we have had frustrating experiences trying to find equipment in a timely manner (figure 1).

• We performed a root cause analysis to understand the reasons for the excessive time taken and hoped to rectify the situation (figure 2).
• We aimed to reduce the time taken to gather equipment for venepuncture or cannulation to twenty seconds by June 2023.
(1) You go to the blood trolley:
SCENARIO:
You are the overnight F1 on call at a cardiac arrest. You need to urgently get bloods.

(2) You open the blood trolley:
(3) You go to the storeroom:
4) Learning points
• Implementing changes can be challenging due to human factors; such as resistance of staff to change. This highlighted to us the importance of stakeholder involvement and ensuring recruitment of the "early adopters."

• Starting with a small change and assessing its effectiveness before expanding on a larger scale ensures sustainability and high motivation by valuing "small wins" (Weick, 1984).
5) Next Steps
• Establish sustainable method of stocking trollies by involving stakeholders and early adopters on the ward, including the clinical matron.


• Educate staff on presence of trollies and encourage engagement and maintenance.
• Put up clear signage to try and encourage visitors to the ward to use the trolley.

• Expand to acute wards hospital - wide
(5) And blood bags are in the sluice!
(4) To get more butterflies:
2) Setting up measurements





• A suitable ward was identified – a surgical ward which has a preexisting stock trolley to provide a good base for improvement.

• Across several days, medical students and other volunteers were observed and timed collecting equipment for both venepuncture and cannulation using the existing set - up.
• Photos of current stock were taken and subjective feedback gathered.
"This is rubbish"
"I can't find anything – it is useless!"
Two quotes from a surgical F1 doctor.
3) Implementing Changes
• We created a driver diagram to try and understand what factors may lead to an improvement (figure 3).



• This informed each part of the Plan - Do- Study- Act (PDSA) cycles (figure 4) and implementation of a new trolley layout (figure 6).
• Results showed median time for equipment collection was reduced from 141 seconds pre - intervention to 18 seconds post - intervention for venepuncture (figure 5) and 137.5 seconds to 18 seconds for cannulation.
