MONTH BY MONTH Color-coded dot stickers are a quick and easy way to identify expired supplies.

SMART STORAGE
Check for Outdated Supplies Quickly and Easily

I've been a surgical administrator for close to 20 years and have never seen a process for eliminating outdated supplies from stock that doesn't involve staff spending hours on end looking at individual items. If you've run into the same issue at your facility, try this simple and effective process:

• Assign each month of the year a colored dot.
• As you open supplies or medications that arrive at the center, check the outdate. Place the colored dot of the arrival month on each item and note the year the item expires on the sticker.
• At the end of each month, staff check for the next month's outdate color. For example, let's say October's color is pink. During the last week of September, staff will check storage areas for pink dots. When they find one, they check the year written on the dot and remove current-year items.
• If items with intact packaging don't expire, note that on a label stuck to the storage bin.

Staff spends more time on the front end opening boxes of supplies and applying the stickers. However, they save time on the back end each month checking storage areas only for specific colored dots.

Alisa Fischer-Hurst, RN, MHSA, CASC
Orange Park (Fla.) Surgery Center
[email protected]