Technology

Hospital Pneumatic Tube Systems in India

The writer is Director & Head Business Development, SNG-Swisslog

India is one of the fastest growing economies in the World with growth pegged between 6 - 8 per cent per annum. The Healthcare Industry in India is growing too at much higher rates at around 20 per cent per annum year on year. An estimate indicates that healthcare spending could be 8 per cent of GDP by 2012 and estimated US$ 1.5 billion is spent on medical equipments of which over 80 per cent is spent on high-tech medical equipments, devices and automation. The mass of healthcare professionals in India is unmatched by any other nation in the world. India is also one of the only few locations in the world with the latest in healthcare technologies including automation, surgical robotics, modular operating theatres, minimal access surgery systems, telemedicine, radiology etc.

Although Indian hospitals and healthcare providers excel in the above mentioned fields, however, the intra-facility logistics and materials management remains untouched by latest innovations in automation of healthcare logistics, materials transportation and supply chain. Merely around US$ one million is sent on intra-facility logistics (ie less than 0.06 per cent of the total spending). Logistics comprising of almost 90 per cent of a healthcare facility's operations, very small amounts are spent and are considered least important in the list of procurements and end up procuring out-dated, obsolete and redundant options and sometimes are not even procured at all.

Of the total transport requirements within the hospital facility; 95 per cent of these transports are spontaneous in nature viz. transports of Drugs, Blood Samples, Organ & Tissue Samples, Other samples (urine etc), Imaging Documents (X-rays etc), Discharge Summary Documents, Billing Documents, Prescription Documents, Standard errands, Analysis Reports, Surgical materials (instruments etc), etc.

In-efficient and inadequate intra-facility logistics may increase human resources costs, healthcare delivery costs, energy costs apart from various other factors. This in turn causes several problems, increases risks and difficulties and consequently reduces the quality of patient care in the facility. For instance, when a patient arrives at an ER (Emergency Room) - instantly patient's blood sample is drawn and sent to the laboratories for analysis. Though the analysis report may be available on the computer monitor using the best of the HIS software in seconds after the analysis is done - it's the critical life saving time consumed during transit of such samples between the handing over at ER to the hospital's staff or patient's relative and the handing over of the sample to the laboratories for analysis. Similar is the case for samples and other materials viz. Blood Plasma to Operating Theatres, hard confidential documents, X-ray reports, drugs etc from other parts of the hospital to and from the laboratories including Operating Theatres, ICUs, Wards, OPDs etc.

Current methods used by the hospital for such Spontaneous transports are Human Based Transport (HDT) viz. using Ward Boys / Orderlies, Patient's Attendants / Relatives, HIS (Hospital Information Systems) with very limited use for virtual information only; Dumb Waiters & Elevators - High Energy Consumption and cause delays. In an example of a 600 bedded hospital facility and estimated over 300 such runs are made every day; of which 75 per cent are to and fro laboratories/blood bank; 10 per cent to and fro pharmacy / stores and 15 per cent to and from administration / billing etc.

There are several risks and problems that entail HDT logistics. They are:

Delays: Hospital's staff carrying the materials may get diverted to a corner for a quick cigarette or a bidi or even choose to have a quick cup of tea with his or her friends - not realizing the critical life saving time being wasted; non-availability of the staff at the time of nee.d

During the physical carrying of test tube for samples, the carrier staff member suddenly tips over and the samples/materials fall off and break - which means the entire exercise needs to be repeated right from drawing the sample at the origin again, again loosing critical life saving time; mixing up of samples and materials is also common in such conventional mechanism, that may cause grave consequences and confusion in the course of procedure for the treatment of the patient.

Theft: A universal problem, invariably theft is very common during transportation of drugs, instruments and other materials, etc.

Exposure: There are many confidential and classified materials transported during a day in a hospital, which, are exposed to other unwanted personnel or people during human-transportation from one department to another.

Bio-Hazard: Carrying of sample (blood/tissue etc...) personally involves high risk of exposure to the carrier of the materials of other persons in the facility to infections and subsequent cross-infections….many more risks and problems.

Personnel: The Hospital needs to dedicate several staff members for just transporting and carrying samples and materials in the hospital - whereas they specifically hired for patient transportation, patient care etc… re-deputation of staff; over-hiring of staff, etc

Energy: Use of dumb waiters and elevators for running such errands cause high consumption of energy; adding to already high energy bills of the facility; apart from causing delays due to long waits at the elevator doors.

We all are quite familiar with the above cited problems and risks involved during such transportation of various materials using the conventional methods. However small these problems and risks may seem - they form a critical part of factors adversely affecting a hospital's operations and basic important goal- Good Patient Care!

In order to overcome the above problems and risks and to incorporate Automation & Logistics Optimisation in Healthcare there is a unique solution available: Hospital Pneumatic Tube Systems - are economical, hi-tech, swift, secure and safe solution etc… etc... Several leading hospitals & healthcare facilities in India have actually acknowledged and have adopted the system including Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi, Dr Lal's Pathlabs in New Delhi, Artemis Health Institute in Gurgaon, Kokilaben Dirubhai Amabai Hospital in Mumbai, Global Hospitals in Chennai, Ganga Hospital in Coimbatore, Oyster & Pearl Hospital & Hope Hospital in Pune, Pushpanjali Crosslay Hospital in Ghaziabad, Chettinad Hospital in Chennai, etc.

"Today SNG-Swisslog has the experience and expertise in designing, planning and providing detailed intra-hospital logistics solutions and enjoys approx. 70 per cent of market shares," explains Puneet Narula, Director & Head Projects, SNG.

pankaj.narula@narulagroup.org