29 十一月

Kitpack - One set, many components, millions of possibilities

More than 9,400 individual components to choose from

Simply imagine that you have had an accident. An ambulance brings you as quickly as possible to the A&E department at the nearest hospital. Nurses and doctors talk to you and prepare you for imminent surgery. You are given general anaesthesia and from this point forward you have to trust in the preparedness and expertise of the hospital staff.

While you are waiting to go into the sleeplike state, you look at the ceiling and ask yourself many questions: Is the OR team well prepared? Is everything needed for the operation within reach in the operating theatre? Is everything sterile, so I don’t become infected with germs? Will everything be okay, am I in good hands?

These thoughts surely go through the minds of many patients before a big, even lifesaving, operation.

As with employees in most other professions, hospital employees have large number of responsibilities and little time. Help is needed, particularly in parts of hospitals in which every second counts. The Kitpack OR custom procedure tray made by Lohmann & Rauscher can provide this help in the highstress environment of OR daytoday operations.

Take, for example, the emergency situation described above. In many cases, OR nurses have to assemble the components needed for a procedure piecebypiece from their stock room. As a result, OR setup and prep times are relatively long. When time is short, it should be spent on the patient and not used for OR prep.

With the Kitpack from L&R, this problem is history. L&R has been producing Kitpack OR custom procedure trays under clean room conditions at its Czech location for more than ten years. It contains all of the singleuse medical devices needed for a surgery: Raucodrape OR drapes, Sentinex surgical gowns and OR dressing materials. Additional components such as tubing, suture materials and scalpels from wellknown manufacturers can also be included. This eliminates the need to gather the items individually, which is a painstaking and timeconsuming process. It is entirely up to the customer what is included in the set – a suitable Kitpack from L&R can be configured for any type of surgery.

Because there are nearly 10,000 components to choose from, it is advisable to get expert help and advice. Our medical device and surgical product consultants help (potential) L&R customers in a personal consultation and answer questions about any aspect of the OR custom procedure trays. An individual needs analysis helps when configuring Kitpacks to avoid ending up with leftover product or superfluous singleuse components, among other reasons. Hospitalspecific requirements, such as the desired packing order, are taken into account, ensuring the greatest flexibility and individuality, not to mention costeffective workflows.

Because of the individual nature of the OR sets, the production process is complex and requires special packaging processes. Since production first started, more than 20 million Kitpacks have come off the production lines in the Czech Republic.

Several hundred employees are responsible for assembling the individual sets every day. Up to 150 Kitpack orders come in to the L&R ordering system every day and they are then assigned to production teams.

Before the ordered set can be produced in large runs, a sample Kitpack is produced and all of the individual component and the relevant documents are inspected. If the pack matches the specified documents, the set is released and production can begin. Controls during and at the end of each production run ensure quality before the sets are transferred to L&R’s ethylene oxide sterilization unit. There the batches are sterilised with a gas that permeates the outer carton. By offering inhouse sterilization throughput times can be greatly reduced during the production process, making it possible for L&R to have fast delivery times to customers.

If desired, the individualised Kitpack can be stored at L&R’s facilities and be ordered for justintime delivery as needed. This is helpful to customers because they no longer need to spend time on stockkeeping and logistics.

If the Kitpack is being used in the OR for the procedure being undertaken, it is packed ready for immediate use. Compared with using individual components, when using Kitpacks less packaging needs to be opened and disposed of, which saves time and uses less packaging material.

An important intermediate step prior to the actual surgery is the note printed on the side of the box about a “TeamTimeOut”. The last safety step before the actual surgery, as recommended by the WHO, involves a short checklist. Those involved in the surgery must identify the patient several times at different points in time, briefly discuss any unusual aspects of the surgery and repeat again and confirm the part of the body being operated on. This measure minimises the risk of mistakes and at the same time shows how well informed the team members are.

But you as the patient do not have to worry about any of these steps. Your emergency surgery went well and you are now in the anaesthesia recovery room. Your family members are waiting for the first eye contact. What you don’t know yet: You will be discharged from the hospital in several days. Everything went well and you can look forward to getting back to your regular routine and your future again.

Facts

  • > 9,400 individual components to choose from
  • The largest Kitpack contains around 100 components
  • Approx. 4 million sets are produced annually
  • Kitpack assembly in a matter of minutes
  • L&R production since 2006
  • 20 million Kitpack sets since 2006