BY: Laurence Canizares
Have been struggling to organize medical supplies or equipment in your patient’s home? Can you locate the oxygen cylinder without exceeding minutes of searching? Can you set up the materials needed and PPE’s prior to wound dressing in no time? If no, then 5-S is for you!
Toyota Production System recommended the use of 5S methodology to organize and maintaina workplace to achieve maximum efficiency and effectiveness.
5S stands for five Japanese words starting with the letter S – seiri, seiton, seiso, seiketsu, and shitsuke.
If translated to English:
– Sort – removing all the waste and unnecessary items from the patient’s bedside table.
– Set in order – to arrange all the items in a way that they are easily found and put to use.
– Shine – regularly cleaning of the equipment and trays in the patient’s space.
– Standardize – standardizing all the possible best practices to maintain high standards in the workplace for all the tasks, and to constantly maintain everything in order.
– Sustain – keeping things in order in the long term.
