P092 Automation in Equipment Asset Management for Laboratory Efficiencies

Abstract Introduction Asset management of laboratory equipment is essential to patient safety. Traceability enables any patient affected by equipment that has been recalled, or subsequently been found faulty, to be retested. Sleep equipment in home, ward or laboratory needs to be clearly documented but this paperwork is tedious and manual. Methods A portable barcode scanner with software was added to the laboratory asset management and the time efficiencies were evaluated. Results The time reduction of using a barcode scanner to manual data entry was found to decrease time approximately fourfold, from 8 mins (std 1.5mins) to 2.2 mins (std 0.5mins). This is for each sleep laboratory testing bed and can equate to 35 minutes in a six-bed sleep laboratory. Accuracy of data is assured with a barcode scanner, compared to manual input. Discussion Using automation to replace manual tasks in a sleep laboratory saves time and ensures data accuracy. Further advances in automation for tagging medical devices would improve this in areas with high use of home or ward devices.