As we wrote last week, staff submitted more than 100 saving ideas at the Vancouver All-Staff Forum in July. One of those ideas is for a staff savings incentive program, a suggestion we’ve received on more than one occasion and one we wholeheartedly support.

Today, we’re pleased to share that a savings incentive pilot has begun at VGH. You can read all about it below, along with our other responses to staff questions about saving on supply expenses.

If you have questions, savings suggestions or just want to reach out to us with what’s on your mind, we welcome your emails at: onevancouver@vch.ca.

Your questions answered

Q. In the late 1980s I worked as a nurse educator at the Royal Ottawa health care group. A project was started called VIP or value improvement project. Essentially, all staff were encouraged to come up with ideas for saving money. They would be invited to “pitch” their ideas at a VIP committee meeting. If the VIP committee thought it worth pursuing, someone would be assigned to explore what the cost/benefits would be, etc.  If the particular proposal was a go, the staff member who came up with the idea would actually receive a small percentage of the net savings.  I can’t remember exactly what the percentage was but it was lucrative enough that all kinds of staff generated all kinds of ideas. One of the maintenance staff proposed a 30-cent valve that produced some huge savings.

A. Thank you for sharing — what an interesting project. We wholeheartedly support initiatives like this — in fact, we have a similar initiative underway at VGH right now (UBCH to join in the fall). The Supply Utilization Initiative will reward staff for reducing supply waste and costs.

The initiative involves VGH staff and physicians from all inpatient Medicine and Surgery units, as well as the ICU/Respiratory, Cardiac and Periop Care. HSSBC and Finance are working in partnership with us and with their help we’ve begun work to:

• inventory our supply rooms and remove redundancies and expired items
• return excess supplies to vendors for credit
• establish a standard list of supplies and stocking levels for supply rooms to prevent overstocking
• standardize OR supplies by case

Each team is targeting a minimum savings of 1%. In return, teams will be rewarded an incentive equal to 10% of achieved savings. Teams can use their incentive for continuing education, new chairs or whatever the group chooses.

It’s still early days, but we already estimate that some units will be able to save $2,000 by returning excess supplies — some with limited shelf life — to vendors. Standardizing supplies on wound care and other carts, validating the need for secondary supply locations (eg: wall-mounted brackets for gloves) and colour-coding of supplies by price are in the future will further increase staff’s opportunities to earn incentive.

If you have an idea for supply savings, we want to know. Speak with your supervisor or director, or contact our own Shelly Fleck, who’s leading the Supply Utilization Initiative.

Q. Our team has found it very difficult to make product changes, even when the change will result in a substantial cost savings. In the past we had an Equipment & Supplies Manager which made the process faster and easier. Is there any thought to bringing an Equipment & Supplies Manager back to our site instead of at HSSBC?  How do we as frontline staff or specialists in an area of practice have our recommendations enacted upon in a timely fashion?  In this time of budget cutbacks, it is frustrating when our ideas for cost saving are not brought forward.  There is no consistent process for all of us to follow.

A. We can hear the frustration in your question, but we hope you can take heart in the work that’s begun through the Supply Utilization Initiative at VGH (see answer above). Through this initiative, staff and physicians have a voice on supplies and savings ideas — and an opportunity to help their team earn an incentive equal to 10% of achieved savings.

We should also add that HSSBC has begun meeting with VCH leaders to better understand and fulfill our needs. We’re optimistic that regular, ongoing communication between our two organizations will have positive, tangible results you’ll feel in your daily work.

So, please don’t hesitate to forward your supply and savings ideas — we want to hear them. Speak with your supervisor or director, or contact our own Shelly Fleck, who’s leading the Supply Utilization Initiative.

Q. Hello, I’ve worked at VGH for over 17 years as a care aide and now as an LPN. I use disposable wipes for patient care, but in the past used a basin with water and cloths/paper towels if heavy soiling… I feel the packaging is bad for the environment, most likely costly to the hospital, and if we don’t use all 3 per pack (6-8 per larger packs) are told to discard the rest for infection control purposes. Just my thoughts on this somewhat new practice.

A. Your question touches on important issues about patient care, the environment and cost-efficiency — do we have to sacrifice one for the other? We don’t think so. In the case of heavy soiling, follow this best practice and you can help prevent the spread of infection while minimizing or even eliminating waste:

First, clean the patient with Wypall or Vernacare paper towel and warm water. When the patient is appropriately cleaned, you have two options for continuing personal care:

1. use Essential Bath cloth wipes (8 per package) to continue the full bed bath — please note that the instructions on the back of this package recommend the use of one wash cloth for each area of the body; or
2. use the Deodorant Clean-Up cloths (3 per package) for before bedtime care or light washing.

When used as directed, you generally shouldn’t have disposable wipes left over. However, if that’s not the case, we must prioritize patient care and safety. Infections like C. difficile and MRSA can have serious consequences for patients and, unfortunately, they spread all too easily. Leftover wipes and partially used packages can’t be safely reheated and they represent just too large of a risk to our patients — and to each other.

The good news is that disposable wipes are biodegradable, and the manufacturer is now working on a solution to create a biodegradable outside wrap too.