Zablocki innovation helps with fluid conservation
While hospitals across the country grappled with a shortage of medical fluids last fall, the Milwaukee VA stepped up to combat the problem with innovation and creativity.
Hurricane Helene’s wrath forced Baxter International, the leading U.S. supplier of intravenous, sterile water and peritoneal dialysis solutions, to reduce production at its largest manufacturing plant in North Carolina. That forced health providers, including those at the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center, to get creative to conserve their supplies until the plant could fully resume operations.
But rather than cross their fingers and hope for a quick recovery, the Zablocki VA Health Care System activated its Incident Command team to actively manage the situation and ensure the fluid shortage didn’t impact Veteran care. They began implementing fluid conservation strategies across the enterprise.
Incident Command also appealed to the ingenuity of its staff to find unique and creative solutions to maximize its fluid conservation. Milwaukee VA employees responded by creating an innovative adapter — known as the Clevercap — that allowed the medical center to better conserve scarce fluids.
The adapter, developed by the Medical Procedures Unit, allowed for the continued use of current tubing that is specifically tailored to sterile water bottles that were in short supply, according to Katy Charlton, program manager for the MPU.
The result? MPU estimated it could save up to 60 liters of sterile water per month in Milwaukee, and even more after expansion to the community-based outpatient clinics.
“This is Zablocki at its finest,” said Dr. Ankur Patel, who headed the Incident Command team.
Gregg Gwidt, chief nurse and Nursing Medical Operations representative for Incident Command, agreed.
“This adapter highlights the local innovation and resiliency of our teams to work together to think outside the box and quickly operationalize ideas into tangible action,” he said last fall. “Conserving fluids today is essential to minimizing the adverse impact across the health care system.”
After hatching the idea for the adapter, MPU began working with 3-D Printing, which was able to create a prototype within a day. Successful trials followed, and Sterile Processing Services came on board. Eventually, 3-D Printing was churning out adapters as quickly as possible. MPU started using the adapters in December.
“We couldn’t have done this without SPS and 3-D Printing’s collaboration and expertise,” Charlton said.
The innovation could go beyond the Milwaukee VA and its clinics. The innovation was shared at a regional and national level as VA looked for innovative ways designed to better deal with the fluid shortage.
“The fluid shortage has been a topic of discussion, and many other VAs share and celebrate any practice ideas that have been successful in their locations.” Charlton said. “That’s one benefit of the VA — the bigger outreach one has to phone-a-friend throughout the United States all while advocating for improved Veteran care.”
Conservation efforts instituted in Milwaukee helped ensure that the health care system could reduce fluid usage while delivering uninterrupted care to Veterans. Implementing a variety of fluid conservation strategies along with innovations such as the Clevercap helped the Milwaukee VA navigate the fluid shortage until the supply chain normalized. Conserving even a small amounts of fluid was critical.
“Conserving medical grade fluids is one of our highest priorities currently,” Gwidt said in December. “All credit to the MPU team for this fantastic work.”
“From day one of announcing in our huddles and brainstorming any conservation ideas, staff have embraced thinking outside the box,” Charlton said. “Never underestimate the impact an idea can have; it’s worth investigating if it improves Veteran care. That’s why we’re here.”