Departments will contact the service helpdesk asking when their restock order is due to arrive, although with the correct PAR levels and catalogued items in place, these types of calls do diminish as the confidence builds with a reliable product source within the department store.

There are departments that are classified as ‘on request’ and, as such, do not require a regular top-up service; as such, these departments will only contact the service support team when they require a product. No PAR levels are set against this department; however, they will have a catalogue containing the products they will likely order when they contact the support helpdesk. In addition, any ‘top up’ department can also contact the service support team to enquire about a catalogued item they require or a product not listed on their catalogue.

Where an item is on their catalogue, the Eleanor team will advise a) when their next scan and restock has been scheduled, including any recent deliveries, b) if there has or is scheduled to be an increase in clinical activity, c) would they like to increase their PAR Levels (the recent consumption data would be shared before any knee jerk increase is agreed).

For a product that is not on their catalogue but part of the wider Trusts catalogue, this will be added to the catalogue. If there is anticipated demand for an item that does not currently form part of the Trust Supply Chain (TSC) team’s approved product list, this request will be deferred to the TSC team for approval.

End users are encouraged to contact the service support team for ward department catalogue enquiries and their associated stock PAR levels. The system consumption and PAR data will all be referenced during these discussions to help support an accurate and timely change. Any communication and subsequent changes agreed upon will all be confirmed in writing by the service support team and implemented on the system.

The service support team is also there to receive calls about any concerns with their store room layout, housekeeping and any perceived overstocking.

Where end users immediately require a product from an emergency store or from within the hospital, Eleanor will, where possible, locate another department and/or emergency store where this product is known to have been catalogued and recently scanned. Where safe to do so, a stock transfer will be placed onto the CARE+ system to ensure the department receives this item in a timely manner. In addition, all stock transfers contain the product and price detail so that internal charging is recorded.

Where incorrect or overstocked products need to be returned to Eleanor and the store’s team, these items will be listed on the service call and through a ‘returns’ or ‘recall’ stock transfer on the system. The materials operative will action their PDA and then physically transfer these products from the department to the Eleanor stores.

Where there is both positive and negative information pertaining to the materials management operatives, the service support team will receive all the necessary information from the end user and, where required, action and feedback to the end user that this has been fulfilled.

Using Eleanor’s ‘online’ order tracking portal, and in order to reduce the number of service support enquiries, each department end user can track the progress of their purchase order in real time, where a delivery has arrived that day or previously. The HOSLO system has been designed purposely for Imperial and is the first of its kind in the UK in providing 11 stages of ‘live’ staff and order tracking once the order/parcels arrive at the hospital. The product is always securely tracked from the point of arrival into a cage when out for delivery and signed for at the delivery point.

RCA usually helps in determining and identifying defects and the main causes of defects. By our service support team identifying the top 10 or 80/20 of the highest number and root cause of department enquiries, we can often find out permanent solutions to reduce or eliminate re-occurrence. This process is embedded within our service team’s core activity and a task that is both routinely run and reviewed to ensure that issues do not fester, evolve and escalate.