醫院氣送系統之氣送桶維修改善專案－以某區域醫院爲例

Improvement of the Capsule in a Pneumatic Tube System in a Regional Hospital

林宗茂(Tsunc-Mao Lin) ； 柯清彬(Ching-Bin Ke) ； 陳明晃(Ming-Huang Chen) ； 陳家盈(Chia-Ying Chen)

《醫務管理期刊》 11卷2期 (2010/06) Pp. 146-154

https://doi.org/10.6174/JHM2010.11(2).146

摘要

Objectives: After a pneumatic tube system has been used for a long time, the two strips of wool felt on the capsule might be rubbed down. This would result in a space between the capsule and the pneumatic tube and lead to leakage of air, lower delivery speed, and failure of the pneumatic pipeline. Our objective was to thicken the groove in the wool felt on the capsule by an innovative method without affecting the quality of delivery, as well as prolonging the service life of the wool felt and decreasing the costs of material consumption and maintenance of the pneumatic tube system.
Methods: After team members experimented with various substitution materials and methods, it was found that the use of ”insulating tape” to thicken the bottom of the grooves in the wool felt (upper and lower) on the capsule could prolong the service time of the wool felt. We divided the same bag of blood into 40 standard specimens, and then randomly assigned these specimens to two groups in order to carry out fixed point-to-point delivery and test the difference in delivery time between the two groups. We counted the number of times the system failed before improvement (January 1~August 27, 2008) and after improvement (January 6~August 31, 2009) and estimated the difference in the cost of annual material consumption/maintenance before and after that improvement.
Results: (1) For a single-trip delivery, the improved capsule was, on average, 2 seconds slower than the original capsule; however, this had no impact on quality or patient safety; (2) the rate of system failure after improvement was significantly lower than before improvement (p＜0.001); (3) the cost for material consumption/maintenance after improvement was lower than before improvement, as it was reduced by NT580,845.
Conclusion: Many factors can cause pneumatic tube system failure so that this solution may not work in every situation; however, it should be considered when improvement is needed.

關鍵字

氣送系統 ； 氣送桶 ； 羊毛氈 ； 維修成本

並列摘要

Objectives: After a pneumatic tube system has been used for a long time, the two strips of wool felt on the capsule might be rubbed down. This would result in a space between the capsule and the pneumatic tube and lead to leakage of air, lower delivery speed, and failure of the pneumatic pipeline. Our objective was to thicken the groove in the wool felt on the capsule by an innovative method without affecting the quality of delivery, as well as prolonging the service life of the wool felt and decreasing the costs of material consumption and maintenance of the pneumatic tube system.
Methods: After team members experimented with various substitution materials and methods, it was found that the use of ”insulating tape” to thicken the bottom of the grooves in the wool felt (upper and lower) on the capsule could prolong the service time of the wool felt. We divided the same bag of blood into 40 standard specimens, and then randomly assigned these specimens to two groups in order to carry out fixed point-to-point delivery and test the difference in delivery time between the two groups. We counted the number of times the system failed before improvement (January 1~August 27, 2008) and after improvement (January 6~August 31, 2009) and estimated the difference in the cost of annual material consumption/maintenance before and after that improvement.
Results: (1) For a single-trip delivery, the improved capsule was, on average, 2 seconds slower than the original capsule; however, this had no impact on quality or patient safety; (2) the rate of system failure after improvement was significantly lower than before improvement (p＜0.001); (3) the cost for material consumption/maintenance after improvement was lower than before improvement, as it was reduced by NT580,845.
Conclusion: Many factors can cause pneumatic tube system failure so that this solution may not work in every situation; however, it should be considered when improvement is needed.

並列關鍵字

Pneumatic Tube System ； Capsule ； Wool Felt ； Maintenance Costs

參考文獻

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