Community Hospital was honored at a VHA conference in May 2011 with the 2011 Supply Chain Management Excellence award. Receiving the award was Jon Reiners, Community Hospital Director of Materials Management.

Community Hospital was recognized for the award after submitting information to VHA on the Inpatient Supply Charge Capture Project, which was undertaken to solve the problems of inventory discrepancies in the inpatient wing. The project team sought to improve inventory and charging accuracy, increase efficiency, and reduce the number of items that were out of stock in the area.

The team implemented automated point of use cabinetry to dispense and charge for billable items, in addition to open shelving that utilizes a visual cue system for replenishment for higher use items. Additionally, some higher use items were moved from the storage rooms to the patient rooms to provide greater efficiency for the nursing staff.

The project team was able to demonstrate a 30% reduction in nursing cycle time to find and charge for products, a 42% reduction in emergency calls for supplies, and a 21% increase in gross supply charge capture.