Questions for ED Nurse Managers

[ski-nurse563]

What is your role in capital equipment purchases for the ED (e.g. monitoring systems, pulse oximeters, etc.)? Who else is involved in the decisions? Do the ED docs have a lot of influence? What about the purchasing dept? Who has the final veto power? I am curious as to whether the process varies regionally & by hospital size--I work in a small, semi-rural environment. Thanks for the feedback--

[okie4ever]

I also work in small hospital. The CNO and I decide what we need if is equipment nurses use. If is new procedure tray for dr. we get input from them. Materials management person has input to make sure is on contract.

[cookienay]

What is your role in capital equipment purchases for the ED (e.g. monitoring systems, pulse oximeters, etc.)? Who else is involved in the decisions? Do the ED docs have a lot of influence? What about the purchasing dept? Who has the final veto power? I am curious as to whether the process varies regionally & by hospital size--I work in a small, semi-rural environment. Thanks for the feedback--

Not an ED mgr- current ED charge nurse with other mgmt experience. Here is how it goes at my facility.

Director/Manager in collaboration with staff determine need for equip. Due diligence is done with regard to researching products, price quotes, trial periods, etc... Purchases under $500 are at mgrs discretion within their budget. Purchases over that require capital purchase. In filing for a capital purchase, several facts must be outlined with proposal. Statement of need, reason why we can't use what we already have, cost/benefit analysis, etc...

THis goes before the board and CEO and they vote. CEO and/or board of directors has final veto power. Now before you get to file the CPR (capital purcase request- funny, huh?) it is best to have done your homework. We do get feedback from everyone- nurses, CMTs, docs, scribes (if applicable). Your facility culture really plays a role in how much influence docs/nurses have. We tend to have a healthy balance of doc influence in such decisions. Our purchasing dept has no real say in what the individual depts purchase per se, but are a resource for contacts, products, best companies to deal with, etc... Also, keeping in contact with your reporting VP is usually a good idea.

For smaller purchases (like $2000 worth of SpO2 monitors or thermometers) it is not that big of a deal. But for very big stuff like monitoring systems, tracking systems, software, etc... it is a huge deal.

When I was a unit manager, I was responsible for getting new telemetry monitors for the whole hospital (yikes!) I spent about 3 months in research and required alot of help. Many resources were available- you just have to know where to look. For example, a VP helped me with my cost/benefit analysis (as a nurse, unless you have an MBA you have no idea what that is let alone how to do one). At the time of all this we were a smallish hospital but have since exploded. Sorry this is so long, I hope this is helpful. Good luck!!

[cookienay]

I did not clarify that our purchasing dept/materials mgmt is usually the one listed on the contract. That is for consistency for our vendors.

[ski-nurse563]

Cookie,

thank you! that was a huge help.