Authors (including presenting author) :
Lee CM (1), Yeung CW (1), Tse HF (1)
Affiliation :
(1) Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, NTWC
Introduction :
In the Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine in NTWC, Senior Radiographers and colleagues, especially PACS administrators, need to manage thousands of inventory items in the 5 local hospitals (TMH, POH, TSH, CPH, YOP). The conventional method to handle the inventory record is by using multiple Excel files. Colleagues need to communicate through emails. Time consuming for information changes, file over-write problems and difficulty to locate the information change initiator were resulted.
Objectives :
To solve the above problems, we divide it into two aspects, the machines and the human. For the former aspect, a web-based inventory management system – RADIMS was created. For the latter aspect, protocols were developed to minimize the error and discrepancy due to human.
Methodology :
(1) To solve the cumbersome steps due to the structural features of the conventional method, the RADIMS was developed.
(2) To solve the error and discrepancy due to human, training seminars, videos and testing website were provided.
The coding and testing of the website were performed in two phases, admin training phase and general user testing phase in each hospital. The implementation was gradually done from POH, through TSH to CPH, YOP and TMH.
Result & Outcome :
The number of items in the RADIMS database were increasing to more than 1000 items in the latest year. The trained users can reduce their time on managing inventories from several minutes to several seconds (reduce around 80% time on doing the same task) by reducing the unnecessary steps. General users can search the items by inputting any related information to the RADIMS. The efficiency for searching is increased by 12 times. File over-write problem was also blocked in the RADIMS.
