The COVID pandemic meant an unprecedented amount of testing, demand, and general pressure put onto the healthcare system of the U.S. Already most hospitals struggled with staffing and shortages, but in 2021, almost 80% of all physicians said they had drug shortages with their patients.
The shortages go beyond simple drugs though, shortages of lab supplies like pipettes and reagents are also commonplace. This stress on the system leads to overworked nurses and doctors as well as inventory waste. In total, 16% of all pharmaceutical inventory is wasted. It’s issues like these that demand modern solutions.
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Reimplementation Of Pneumatic Tubes
Or maybe, a not so modern solution. Pneumatic tubes have been around since the 19th century, but they are rising as one of the biggest boosts to efficiency and error reduction that hospitals have available. This is due to their modern implementation and innovations around the technology, but first, how do they work?
Pneumatic tube systems work by using carriers that can change lines and have a tracker to determine if and when they reach their destination. These lines exist throughout stations, floors, and even buildings depending on the scope of the system. Modern systems also tend to have security features, air quality systems, and more efficient routes.
Stanford Children’s Hospital is one system that managed to transmit over 7,000 carriers daily in 2010. This took more than 124 stations and 29 blowers. The University of Iowa is another system that has tremendous scope and efficiency. While only getting through 6,000 carriers a day, the system can transfer from stations both in and out of the campus.
The ability to deliver medication directly from pharmacies to hospitals, to transport recent tests and samples directly to labs, and the general reduction of human input are some of the strengths of the massive system seen at the University of Iowa. It’s advanced systems like these that go from saving around 10-15 minutes to saving 20-25.
This is a small difference, but it happening daily over and over again really starts to open up time and opportunities for hospitals. On top of this the error reduction of pneumatic tubes must be mentioned. In a hospital where one floor had tubing and one didn’t, the floor with tubing had zero medication errors while the floor without had 16.
This was over a four week period and really goes to show how money and time can be saved with these systems. There are countless ways in which hospitals are advancing and modernizing, but this archaic reimplementation is looking to be one of the most promising.
Infographic Source: Swisslog Healthcare
