Western Governors University C493 task 1

Reducing supplies waste in ICU 1. The Problem. Whether materials expire, become contaminated, or get discarded to bring in new products, an overwhelming number of unused medical supplies are tossed out every day. This organizational challenge comes with negative financial and environmental consequences. Supplies waste is a problem to the health care environment as it causes stress on hospitals’ budgets and supply chain. If we could reduce waste in my area of practice, the Intensive Care Unit, expenses used for purchasing materials could be better allocated. 2. The Evidence. Waste of supplies from the health care industry has been talked about for decades. Despite this, concrete statistics on the subject are not available. The National Academy of Medicine has estimated the health care system wastes around $765 billion a year (Allen, 2017). Some hospitals donate discarded supplies to charities, but most of these materials end up in landfills. U.S. hospitals create more than 4.7 million pounds of waste every year (Thiel, 2020). As we faced the COVID-19 pandemic, we encountered new challenges in ICU. Our hospital, as most hospitals in the country, was facing a shortage of supplies. At the same time, we were going through more supplies and unusual supplies, were performing procedures new to our unit, such as proning, and working in airborne and contac