Robert-Bosch-Hospital GMBH

Every hospital and every clinic, regardless of its focus, always has one thing in mind: The well-being and recovery of their patients. All functional areas of a company therefore work hand in hand to achieve this goal. The Central Sterile Supply Department has a responsible task: medical devices must be processed in accordance with certain standards, regulations, guidelines and Krinko/BfArm recommendations and made available to all patient-related departments.

The Central Sterile Supply Department (hereinafter referred to as CSSD) at the Robert Bosch Hospital in Stuttgart also takes on such a responsible task. Because medical products are also reprocessed here. Among other things, it is important that the reprocessing processes are documented and that the medical devices to be reprocessed are assembled into a wide variety of sets without errors in accordance with specified packing lists. At the beginning of last year, the decision was made in Stuttgart to improve the existing IT system in the CSSD and to equip the “packing stations” there with new PCs. The Stuttgart hospital found support for this project from Rein Medical GmbH (hereinafter: Rein Medical).

Quality assurance through digitalization

The Central Sterile Supply Department is a highly hygienic area. Numerous laws, regulations, guidelines and Krinko/BfArm recommendations must be strictly adhered to in order to supply all patient-related departments within a hospital with appropriately prepared medical devices, and the procedures and process steps are precisely defined for all processes. The primary objective is to hand over flawlessly assembled and flawless medical products to the respective department – as is the case in Stuttgart. “The principle of continuous improvement was already named by our founder Robert Bosch in 1940 as the foundation of our work. This is another reason why our CSSD is certified in accordance with EN ISO 13485,” says Bruno Dos Santos, Deputy Head of CSSD at the Robert Bosch Hospital and Project Manager, emphasizing the quality standards within the company. “We should always strive to improve the existing situation – we have also taken this maxim of our founder and benefactor Robert Bosch to heart and last year already considered how we could further optimize our own processes,” says Dos Santos, describing the initial situation.

External partners provide support through expertise

“We knew that we wanted to improve our existing system as well as the IT infrastructure,” explains Jochen Geiger, Head of the Central Sterile Supply Department at the Robert Bosch Hospital. “We were therefore looking for a partner who could equip the 18 packing stations in our department to meet our requirements,” Geiger continues. Those responsible in Stuttgart recently found support from Rein Medical. The Mönchengladbach-based expert for medical IT develops and produces hardware and software and, in addition to the complete integration of video solutions for the operating theater, also offers hardware with hygiene features that meet the high demands of everyday hospital life. “Our specialist retail partner Roeser Medical (hereinafter referred to as Roeser) recommended Rein Medical to us and we were happy to follow this recommendation,” says Dos Santos, describing the initial contact with the external partner. “We had already discussed our special requirements for the CSSD’s new IT with Roeser in advance,” says Dos Santos, praising the support provided by the partner. “We could trust that these would then also be implemented,” Dos Santos continues. Klaus Schleehuber, Medical Device Consultant at Roeser, also sees the close cooperation on site as a success factor: “I myself have been looking after the Robert Bosch Hospital for many years and am on site at least once a week. This enabled us to provide optimum support in analyzing the requirements for the equipment at the packing stations.”

Clearly define and implement requirements

For the future IT support of the CSSD in Stuttgart, criteria for equipping the packing stations had already been defined in advance. In addition to the special hygiene properties of the PCS, optimum image quality and user-friendly operation should be ensured. “With regard to the PCs, simple operation, disinfectability and housing tightness were particularly important to us,” explains Dos Santos. In order to meet all these requirements, Rein Medical recommended the CLINIO 324 C, an all-in-one PC developed and manufactured in-house for everyday medical use, which has a completely flat front side without a drip edge or protruding operating elements, completely dispenses with ventilation slots and is therefore absolutely hygienic. “Our CLINIOS are very powerful and can be adapted and expanded as required,” says Bernd Schmidtke, Sales Manager Germany at Rein Medical, explaining the advantages of the product. “That’s why we deliberately equipped all PCs in Stuttgart with touch screens,” continues Schmidtke. Thanks to the touch screen, input convenience for CSSD employees has increased significantly, and input reliability in Stuttgart has also improved noticeably. “At the beginning, our employees were still a little skeptical about the touch screens,” reports Dos Santos, “but now everyone is very satisfied and wouldn’t want to miss out on using the screen at all!”

The program applications and packing lists required at the packing stations are displayed on the screens and can be easily edited; the touch screens can also be operated with gloves.

Extensive tests make the decision easier

After the presentation, the CLINIO PCs were first extensively tested in the CSSD. Rein Medical provided the Robert Bosch Hospital with a test installation for this purpose. The CSSD was also able to rely on its own IT department throughout the entire test phase. The IT managers in Stuttgart assessed both the quality and the performance of the panel PCs. On the other hand, the IT department of the Robert Bosch Hospital was also responsible for installing the application software. “We are pleased that we were also able to support the test phase from our side,” reports Patrick Blank, IT project manager at the Robert Bosch Hospital. “Among other things, this is how we ensured the compatibility of the application software for the endurance test,” adds Blank.

Both partners praise the good and constructive cooperation. “In the course of the extensive audit, we were also able to express our wishes, which were taken up by Rein Medical in a timely and, above all, very uncomplicated manner,” says a satisfied Dos Santos. PCs from Rein Medical are now in use at all 18 sterile goods packing stations in the CSSD at the Robert Bosch Hospital. Thanks to the support of the hospital’s IT department, the roll-out was completed on time after the test phase, over a period of just 4 weeks.

Convincing product features and trusting cooperation ensure success

In Stuttgart, however, the company is not only satisfied with Rein Medical in terms of product and process optimization. The final verdict on the entire project and the installed PCs is also consistently positive. “Right from the start, we felt that our contacts at Rein Medical and Roeser provided us with the best possible support and that we were in competent hands,” summarizes Bruno Dos Santos. “The collaboration between everyone involved was very close and went smoothly,” explains Dos Santos. “This was very important to us, as we also wanted to work closely with our own IT department on this project.” The advantages of the new IT equipment in the Stuttgart CSSD can be clearly stated: “Our packing stations are now significantly more hygienic, user-friendly, ergonomic and safe,” says Dos Santos, summarizing what he considers to be the greatest benefit in one sentence. In addition, the deputy head of department also sees the convenient operation of the application software and the compactness of the CLINIOs as clear advantages.