Matt and I finally started taking inventory today (May 28th).  We started in the ICU partly because the ICU has a lot of important equipment and partly because the ICU department head was very excited to have a barcoded inventory of all his equipment.

We have found that “barcode” is a magic word.  Hospital staff are not excited about our inventory until we tell them that we are using barcode labels.  It is the barcode that makes our inventory special and official.  Jimma already has a partial inventory.  Last year, student interns started to record existing equipment details.  But their inventory was not very useful because there was not way to tie the inventory information to the device.  The barcodes enable us to give each device an unique identifying number, which allows device specific information to be tracked.  Using the coded labels, the Jimma biotech will be able to keep track of a specific device’s location, status, and maintenance history, among other things.

Matt and I have specialized barcode labels.  They are made of metal and have a very strong adhesive, so they should be very durable and long-lasting.  When we take inventory, we attach the label, and record the device’s location, make, model, serial number, functionality, and other crucial data. All of this data goes into the database Matt and I are creating.

The ICU consists of about 4 rooms, one of which is a patient room.  The patient room has a capacity of about 6-7 beds.  We found that within the ICU about 50% of the equipment is broken.  This sounds much worse than it really is.  The ICU has patient monitors and equipment for every bed.  However, broken equipment is stored within the wards rather than in the biotech room or a store room because it is owned by the medical departments, rather than by the hospital.