Birmingham Community Care Observation Kit Bags

Our client Birmingham Community Healthcare had seen an increase in incidents through the trust mainly from nursing staff who had suffered musculoskeletal injuries whilst carrying equipment to and from patients homes in the community.  A review was undertaken by staff in various teams and it was identified that there was no consistent approach to the bags used across the trust, various shapes, sizes and materials were used which increased the risk of injury and added to issues around infection control. An audit was undertaken of the equipment carried by staff and it was identified that Staff with larger bags would overload and carry more items that required, this increasing the weight and size of the bag. Openhouse’s unique material MicrAgard™  has ensured the trust is complaint with infection control guidelines. One of the major benefits of this project is the consistency across the trust helping with training and development. Staff who have received the new bags have expressed how much better they are in the teams and prefer them to the other bags used and the weight of the equipment carried has been reduced. After working with Openhouse, Birmingham Community Care used a number of ideas to develop a bag that would meet the needs of all the teams and be large enough to carry the items they require on a day to day basis, without the additional space to overload the bags. A solution was designed to allow staff to pick and choose what part of the bag they needed, rather than taking all items in one go. This involves a Scales Bag  and Observation Bag which attach together allowing items to be carried efficiently.