George's innovative thinking helping Trust save thousands of pounds on laptop and wristband printer repairs
A member of our Digital Services team has been praised by UHDB Chief Executive, Stephen Posey, and his colleagues for helping the Trust save thousands of pounds by making simple changes to how laptop and patient wristband printer repairs are carried out.
George Kythreotis, End User Support Team Leader based at Royal Derby Hospital, has helped to save more than £3,500 in repair costs this year by training his team to carry out screen repairs on 'laptops on wheels' (LOWs) used by ward-based colleauges, and by putting measures in place to prevent breakages in the first instance.
He has also been able to order different cartridges for the printers that create ID wristbands for patients when they are admitted to hospital to prevent printers becoming jammed, saving both financial waste and wasted wristband cartridges.
Helping create more efficient laptop repairs
One area George has helped to make financial savings, while also providing a more efficient service to colleagues, is in repairing broken screens on 'laptops on wheels' (LOWs), which are used by clinical colleagues when visiting several patients on our wards to conduct ward rounds and medication reviews, for example.
George explained that due to the way they are set up, screens on these machines are more likely to be damaged or broken:
"The LOWs are set into the trolleys they sit on and have two metal bits either side of the screen which prevents the laptop from being closed. Sometimes, colleagues forget these are there and try to shut the screen, or try to move the LOW by grabbing the top of the screen, which can easily damage the screen which then needs to be replaced."
To protect the screens, George contacted colleagues in Estates and Facilities and asked to make use of the Perspex screens which were used as desk dividers during the height of the pandemic. These have then been cut down to size and placed between the metal arms on the LOW trolleys and the screen, so should the screen attempt to be closed, the Perspex protects the screen and in most cases avoids them becoming damaged or broken.
In addition, George has also trained members of his team to carry out the repairs on LOWs that still incur damage. Previously, these repairs would have cost more than £300 per machine, but George and the team can now save more than £200 per repair as well as completing the job in a faster time frame due to the LOWs not needing to be sent away to the manufacturer.
These two measures have already helped to save more than £3,500 in repairs this year, with George's team having repaired around 20 LOWs.
More sustainable patient ID wristband printing
Another issue George identified was with printers used to create wristbands for patients who are admitted and treated at Royal Derby Hospital. Occasionally, the printer would hit a fault when printing a wristband, pulling the printed part of the cartridge back into the printer, which makes the rest of the cartridge unusable.
New cartridges cost around £25 each, and sometimes the fault can be so severe that new printers are also required, which cost around £280 each.
George added: "Upon looking into this issue further, I discovered that some wards and departments we having this problem very regularly, meaning up to five cartridges every month were being rendered unusable due to this fault, costing the ward up to £125 each month.
"After further investigation and finding out how widespread the problem is, this could equate to up to £50,000 every year in cartridges that may only have had one wristband printed from them before they were broken, which is staggering."
With this in mind, George found an alternative wristband cartridge, which costs around as much as the former ones, but can be used if they become jammed in the printer - drastically reducing waste and costs.
Value and Sustainability is one of our five strategic themes that underpin our new five-year strategy, Our Way to Exceptional Care Together. One of UHDB's six key strategic priorities this year is to lower our costs by 5% by providing high-quality, cost-effective services and reducing waste.
George's efforts are a great example of how everyone across the Trust, whether working in a support role or providing direct patient care, can contribute to helping us to achieve our collective goals by looking at small changes we can all make in our daily work.
George's innovative thinking and cost saving actions have not gone unnoticed, and he was recently presented with our latest Chief Executive's Award by Stephen Posey, in a surprise presentation in front of George's proud colleagues.
Speaking after being presented with his award, George said: "I'm amazed really, it has been such a surprise to be presented with this award.
"I have worked in the NHS for 25 years and have always had a passion for helping the wider NHS to save money and use its financial resources wisely.
"A lot of my family are nurses working elsewhere in healthcare, and I always like to think that any savings I can make in my role in Digital Services frees up more finances to help them and other clinical colleagues like them to do their jobs and continue to develop their services for our patients and communities."
Stephen Posey, Chief Executive, added his congratulations, stating this was a great example to other colleagues across the Trust of seeing an opportunity to make a difference and putting simple measures in place that can add up to have a big impact.
Stephen said: "This is a brilliant example of looking at how we can work smarter as a Trust to not only help us to save money and resources, but valuable time as well. For every piece of equipment that George has helped get back out to our colleagues at a reduced cost and with shorter turnaround time, means more time our colleagues providing patient care have to do just that.
"It may seem difficult at times for us to think about ways in which our individual actions can help us in achieving our sustainability and financial targets in large NHS trusts such as our, but George has shown here that small changes can have a tangible impact.
"I am delighted to be able to present George with my latest CEO Award, and I would like to thank him on behalf of the Executive team and everyone at UHDB for his continued innovation and commitment to helping us achieve our objectives as a Trust."
Would you like to nominate a colleague for a Monthly Making a Difference Award?
If you would like to nominate a colleague or team for a Monthly Making a Difference Award, please let us know.
Our Monthly Making a Difference Awards celebrate those who have shown exceptional care and who have delivered improvements across safety, quality, effectiveness and patient experience and demonstrated the Trust values of Compassion, Openness and Excellence.
There are three monthly Making a Difference Awards categories:
- Chief Executive Award – chosen by our CEO
- Patient Hero Award – nominated by patients
- Excellence Award - you can nominate colleagues and teams
You can nominate in two ways:
- Complete our new e-form which will be sent directly to our awards team >
- Send a 300 word nomination, along with the name of the team or individual, their job title and where they work, to: uhdb.employeeawards@nhs.net.