Christchurch Hospital Disposable Bipolar Forceps Case Study
Christchurch Hospital:
Christchurch Hospital is one of the largest tertiaries, teaching and research hospitals in the South Island of New Zealand. It provides a full range of emergency, acute, elective and outpatient services. In addition, Christchurch Hospital is one of the busiest Emergency Department in Australasia, treating more than 83,000 patients a year. On top of this, Christchurch Hospital is one of New Zealand’s Regional burns units, covering patients for the majority of the South Island.
The Challenge:
As one of New Zealand’s most prominent hospitals with a large plastics surgery service, Bipolar Forceps were a staple in the sets at Christchurch Hospital. All Bipolar Forceps being used were reusable and required processing by the Central Sterilisation Service between cases. However, Charge Nurses in Theatre have significant issues with losing forceps or having forceps damaged due to high turnover and use. At around $400 per forcep, this had a significant financial impact on the DHB, and the staff time spent rushing forceps through CSD—the impact of delays to surgeries waiting for the needed equipment.
The Solution:
The theatre charge nurse team reached out to Hallmark Surgical to discuss transferring their reusable forceps over to single-use alternatives. The situation was discussed, and it was recommended that Christchurch Hospital starts with their most common product, the E8215A05 Adson Forcep, with a 0.5mm tip.
Fortunately, this product was already in the DHB system as a small outpatient clinic had been purchasing this. It meant that the trial process could be fast-tracked. Within five weeks, Christchurch Hospital switched all Adson reusable forceps from their Ortho, Plastics, Max-Fax and Paediatrics sets to the ZAP Single Use Bipolar Forcep range.
Implementation and Supply:
Due to the size of Christchurch Hospital’s requirement, Hallmark Surgical’s current stock holding needed to be increased to cater for their needs immediately. However, Christchurch Hospital needed an urgent solution to prevent an impact on service delivery. On top of this, Hallmark Surgical’s manufacturing facilities were being significantly impacted by COVID lockdowns. This required a creative approach to ensure Christchurch Hospitals’ needs were looked after.
Hallmark Surgical immediately invested in 5 months of stock holding, airfreighting the entire quantity from the factory, reducing a standard five-month lead time to just five weeks. On top of this, Hallmark Surgical provided our premium Electrisure Adson Forcep with a 0.5mm tip within the five-week gap to Christchurch Hospital, giving them instant access to single-use forceps.
Key Benefits:
- Increased buffer stock in warehouse to allow for fluctuation in demand.
- Airfreighting stock urgently for immediate implementation.
- Broad range offering close alternative in case of unexpected supply interruptions.
- Continuous stock on hand eliminating procedure disruption for Christchurch Hospital.
Since implementation:
Since implementing single-use Adson Forcep in May 2021, Christchurch Hospital is now using 12 different forceps across both Electrisure and ZAP ranges, and they are being used in Theatre, ED, and Outpatient departments.
