Improving Equipment Procurement Processes for Nurses

The Capstone team worked with New York-Presbyterian Hospital to review the distribution of medical equipment throughout the Weill Cornell campus. The team was charged with finding an efficient process for nurses to procure the equipment they need for the right patient at the right time. Unfortunately, attempting to locate the needed equipment absorbs a significant amount of time. This equipment is currently distributed by the central distribution department once a nurse places an order. In order to identify barriers between ordering the equipment and delivering it to the nurses, team members interviewed several equipment and nurse managers, held focus groups with nurses, and compiled equipment utilization data through observational audits and database queries. Once the data was fully analyzed, the team was able to determine the optimal equipment par levels and designed efficient processes for delivering the equipment to the nurse staff in a timely manner, allowing them to spend more time by their patients' bedsides.