Hello, everyone, and welcome to a podcast brought to you by Census. I'm your host for today, Gabrielle. And right now, I'm thrilled to be joined by Arlene Bush, team supervisor for the US Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as Marlon Minnis, national conversion manager at Census. And today, we're gonna be learning about the pros and the cons of paperless versus electronic instrument tracking. So here to enlighten us on the subject as well as provide actionable industry insights are Arlene and Marlin. Welcome. Hi, ma'am. Thanks for having me. Good afternoon. Of course. Well, to start off, let's kick this podcast into gear by learning more about paperless versus electronic instrument tracking. But before we dive in there, let's go ahead and start, with you, Arlene. For those who are listening in for the first time who might not be familiar with your name, let's just take a moment to tell the audience about your background and just your role within the industry. Currently serve as the day shift supervisor for our sterile processing services for the VA here in Florida. I've worked, in large health care systems, private health care systems, now currently for the government. I've used a lot of tracking systems as well as paper process. So, I look forward to this chat today. Fantastic. And Marlon? Yeah. Thank you. I'm glad to be invited as well. I started as a surgical tech in the United States Army where I specialized in neuro and, orthopedics, and then also did SPD because they are the the surgical techs also worked in the SPD department. Then after getting spending twelve years in the service, I ended up as a, SPD director. Last assignment was at the University of Maryland Medical System, and then I moved on to one of our competitors, SPM, worked twelve years for another instrument tracking company, and then another twelve years with Integra who had an instrument tracking solution. And then finally, I've been with Sensus for about four and a half years. Both illustrious careers. Thank you for sharing. Arlene, I would love it if you could tell us just about the process of tracking instruments and, scopes with paper records and documentation. Well, scopes has really been a hot topic in the industry for a while now. And tracking scopes, and what that looks like to every step is a pivotal point right now. It's really crucial to make sure that we are achieving every step in endoscope processing. And our tracking system allows us to track that, generate reports, make sure scan points are met, and essentially report out on it monthly. So it's a a huge tool, that really does make our job easier when we're trying to, quantify things as far as compliance and, making sure that we're processing items to the IFU. Well, kind of as a follow-up to that, Arlene, could you possibly describe the process of what it's like to track manually? What kind of are the challenges associated with that, and, where have maybe your facility had any, kind of pain points with paper tracking? Just what are the limitations there? In previous places that I've worked at, we did paper tracking for scope reprocessing, which was very daunting. It was often wet from wearing gloves and being in a wet environment. We were tracking patient stickers. There was a lot of protected information on log records and things of that nature. Records would come up missing. And you really don't have that with a digital option. It goes to a database. It's tracked daily. You can drill it down to a cycle or a particular day or maybe an operator who would have been in there during that time. So there are a lot of benefits to having the electronic option versus handwriting and things like that. Well, I mean, electronics I mean, everything has its pros and limitations, but the paper versus the electronic, I mean, it's got got something on the paper in terms of not getting wet and losing files quite as easily with that kind of tracking system. Well, flipping this over to you, Marlon, you used to track instruments on paper as well. So what was that experience like, for you, from your perspective? I mean, what kind of challenges were there in your circumstance? Well, I guess you didn't realize how challenging it was at that point because that's all you really had. But I think one of the things Right? I mean, now we think of it as a challenge. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. So, you know, one of the things I always think about was just the count sheet maintenance piece. Right? So we would have to either type up or handwrite out the contents of of a set so that when it's when the people who are assembling it, they would have some guide or some recipe to follow. So when you want to change as an instrument across multiple count sheets, you basically had to not only retype up a new master, but then throw out all the old ones, that was already accumulating in the file cabinets for people to pull from. So at least, obviously, with the electronic side, it's easy because now I can make one change and affect multiple count sheets. They don't have to have, you know, copies hanging around. And the other challenge with that was that when the when someone took the master, which sometimes they did to assemble a set, especially on off shifts, then, of course, you didn't have a a copy or something you could go to, to, to make additional copies of or you didn't have the master to begin with. So, you know, that was one of the things I always think about. And then as Arlene mentioned, when you did your sterilization records, they give you these three by five cards, and you had to write, like, maybe twenty or thirty items on a card that basically could hold maybe fifteen items legitimately. You know? And then you have to worry about how people scribbled. You know? Everybody didn't spell things correctly, so then you had to figure out what it was. Or if it got wet or the the ink smeared, then there was some problems with that. And then outside of that, we had we I had an administrator, assistant that would actually go through on a monthly basis and have to try to count every item that went into the sterilizer so that I could get some volume output of how much, you know, work my department was doing. And so, again, that was all manually. So by the time you you did last month's worth of work, you had another month worth of data that you had to go through. So it was really cumbersome. It obviously kept someone employed. But Well, how did this next question is for the both of you. How did that transition to this kind of tracking system affect your overall workflow? Because, I mean, it's quite different from the one previous ones before. What kind of benefits would you say a tracking system provides? Do you feel like a tracking system is almost necessary in today's world? I do believe it's necessary in today's world just for, competency tracking for, usage for your instrumentation or scopes, processing time, how long did it take to process a trade? Did we process it the correct amount of time? Did we soak it long enough? Did we process it to the IFU parameters, which is all trackable with your instrument tracking system, which we really didn't have. And like Marlon said, that really took up a whole FTE in a month to quantify that data that we had, which is now at our fingertips, honestly. And, Marlon, how did that kinda transition, to a tracking system just to kinda affect your overall workflow? I think it gave us a a lot more, credibility and accountability on the amount of work that we're actually doing. You know? So a lot of times when I'm sure Arlene's found herself in a position too. A lot of times we have to fight for additional resources, and a lot of times they wanna know why you need additional resources. So if you can't really account for the amount of work that's coming through your department fairly quickly, then a lot of times that that those available resources aren't made available to you. So it's really important to quantify, as Arlene mentioned, you know, what your department's actually putting out based on the resources that are available today in order to justify additional resources down the road. Down the line. No. Absolutely. Well, how did you measure the output of your department in a manual process versus today where now you have an automated system? Was it a pretty big difference there? Honestly, it is because, it took somebody counting how many PO packs were processed in a twenty four hour period, how many biological loads were run, and it was done very much, antiquated. So with a tracking system, that's really at the ease of a click, currently or generating a report to, you know maybe you're looking at results needed the morning of, the next morning for your previous day. It's really endless possibilities with your instrument tracking system that, probably weren't even thought of when we were doing the paper process. I'm sure that we had no clue that, the capabilities we were getting into in health care technology. Right? And I think one of the other things that that's neat about it is that a lot of times, as a manager, I would walk in and I take a snapshot. So let's say if I walked in the decon and I saw things stacked up, I would assume that someone dropped the ball or some things were not done. And so sometimes you take action on on either lack of information or no information, and that can come back to hurt you as a as a lead or supervisor. Right? Because you're gonna blame someone for something that they may or may not have contributed to. And so at least with the data, electronically, you can go back and actually see the time, the date, and the person who was engaged in the activities at that time. So, again, you still wanna use it as an opportunity to train, educate, and develop, but at least you're not spending effort and time with someone that really probably doesn't need to hear, your concerns because they're doing what they're supposed to be doing. Well, Arlene, I kinda wanna flip this back over to you because I wanna ask about, your experience using CensusTrack specifically at your facility. Just what are some of your probably your favorite features or the functionalities of the software? My reports, certainly. I depend on my reports to make sure that, opening scans are done throughout my department. Afternoon scans will close out of the day. Biologicals are processed when needed to be. We notate, notes in our loads, so I can actually run reports on just notes, that were annotated on loads. Our quality feedback offers a platform for a non punitive area for everybody to put in defects that they find. And that way, we can talk about it as an organization, bring some key stakeholders to the table. And, ultimately, how are we never gonna be here again with this defect? Oh, for sure. Well, you know, kind of taking what we have in account with SensitiveTrak now, what do you hope to see from Census in the future? What kind of products or or projects are you working towards, and just how can we help at Census? I haven't worked, at a place that's integrated yet, but that is, that is a want of mine. I'd like to see what SensiTrack does once it's integrated, with some equipment. And the ease of that because I hear it's pretty nice. I haven't gotten to that side of the house yet, but I'm I'm hoping to get there one day. And what I feel like we could do, as far as, like, getting, we like the lower link, option of it because it's all under one system. That's huge. And then to kind of a borescope option, I would like to see CentiTrack have where we could do borescoping within our platform and be able to save it. Yeah. It would make a big difference. I mean, that's a really good goal to start working towards. So thank you for sharing. And Marlon. I think, it's it's really getting around the the AI just like Arlene mentioned. I I think the key for SBU departments to continue to grow and and become more efficient and streamline their processes is is to have good data, real time data, and data that they can fill and trust. And I think with the, with the platforms of bringing in AI, whether it's in the productivity side, or on the quality side, it it helps them better manage, you know, those those outputs, so that that way when they're presenting it to their leadership teams again, as mentioned before, the the objective is always to get additional resources because SPD constantly needs resources in order to continue to keep up with the demands of their customers. And data speaks loudly. I mean, I'm sure Arlene's been in the case too. I, you know, I I can talk about it all day with my leadership team, but it's just me, one voice. But when they can look at data and they can come to their own conclusion, you know, it don't matter to me who takes credit for coming to that conclusion as long as the conclusion that's gonna help in the best interest of my department or our department. So, I I think data is the is is huge. Well, as we start to close-up the conversation here, what would you say to other hospitals who are maybe still tracking instruments on paper? Is this a necessity to start moving to this automated, process where we can track everything digitally? What would you say to them? I would certainly say it's a benefit if you can't look down your hallway and see your instrument stock, then you need a tracking system, to know where it is at real time. And whether it's in the sterilizer, whether it's in the instrument holding room. Is it in an OR? Is it in Decontam where it's often is found? So I think if we, could tell people who weren't, exposed to instrument tracking systems or didn't currently have one, but we're we're thinking about that platform, that it is beneficial. It does have so many more pros than cons when it comes to a paper process as far as tracking accountability surveys. You have quantified data now to show a surveyor when they come in and say, hey. You said you processed two billion instruments last year, but you really only did fifteen hundred. So things like that. It keeps us accountable. It keeps, the OR accountable, and it we need that accountability right now. Don't we all? And, Marlon, what would you say to other hospitals who are just still tracking instruments on paper? Well, I I kind of feel bad for them. Right? Because, obviously, if you've seen the other side, you really understand what they've been going up, and we both experienced it. And I I think what I like to tell them is, like, let's stop, putting out fires all day and and just being very reactive because the quality of life doing that just wears on you over time. I think there's a lot of SPD folks that over time get burnt out pretty quickly because they do the work, they put in all the effort, and they're not getting the credit that they deserve for the work that they're putting out. And I think with the pro with the with the instrument tracking system, you can start giving each individual in the department credit for all the work that they do and the impact that they do have in the overall business. And I think when you do that and you you can move the, SPD team to be less reactive and more proactive, the quality of life changes. And as an SPD manager, when you don't have to spend twelve and fourteen hours on-site day in and day out, and you get a tracking system there, you're leaving with everybody else on the day shift, that's a nice feeling. Right? I mean and I don't I don't I would be hard pressed to believe a lot of SPD managers are leaving with their day shift when they leave. Correct. Correct. So true. I I think back to when I didn't have it or have had met people who have who've had an only had an instrument tracking system and couldn't pivot back to paper process. It's it's interesting how many people rely on the instrument tracking system now because that's all they know. Well, that's actually a good point. Has anyone worked with the paper tracking, moved to digital, and then gone back to paper tracking? Because that would be interesting. I hope not. I hope they're going back to instrument tracking just as soon as they can. Well, that wraps up the conversation for today. So thank you, Arlene and Marlon, for joining us on today's podcast to just weigh the benefits and also the disadvantages of paperless versus electronic instrument tracking. It was a pleasure to have you on the podcast. Thank you. Thank you. Of course. And as always, if you'd like to learn more about Census, please visit census dot com and look for this podcast wherever it is you get your podcast at. I've been your host, Gabrielle. Thanks for tuning in.
