How a purpose-designed community nurse bag has saved RDUH over £52,000 in twelve months.
Evaluating the first-year cost savings levied through our Community Nurse Bags: how a purpose-designed approach has saved RDUH over £52,000 in twelve months on dressings alone.
A pilot study tracking the cost savings secured through a purpose-designed community nursing bag, has completed its first-year assessment. The findings have concluded both significant financial savings for the Trust, as well as overall return of investment within less than twelve months. Here’s how:
In October 2022, the team at CorrMed launched a brand new, purpose-designed community nurse bag. Incorporating a main stock bag, home visit bag, kneeling mat/workstation, and six colour coded pouches, the bags were developed in collaboration with Sam Charlton, Community Clinical Matron at Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (RDUH).
Within months of launch, budget was approved to roll-out the bags across the RDUH community nursing teams, delivering immediate efficiency and infection control improvements for the team. One year on, the efficiency and cost-saving benefits have begun to be quantified, showing incredible results through the examination of savings on dressings alone. Planning is underway to further extend the monitoring pilot to include an evaluation of mileage and fuel savings made through reduced trips back to base.
Here’s what the pilot found:
One of the key features of the community nurse bag is the visible and accessible organisation of dressings and general stock. As well as helping nurses find important items more quickly, thereby giving them more time to spend with patients, the advantage of the design is less waste, thanks to proper storage meaning less items become outdated, and less packaging and thus kit becoming damaged.
To quantify the impact of these savings, RDUH has been tracking spend on dressings over the last year, concluding their first report from April 2023 to March 2024. A key example is the supply of dressings, identifying that the bags have eliminated unnecessary waste, thereby significantly reducing costs:
In April 2023, spend on dressings per team was £1,150.
By March 2024, spend on dressings per team was £600, representing an immediate saving per team, per month, of £550. The only process change was the introduction of the community nurse bags.
The NHS Trust has eight community nursing teams and each team has circa. 20 nurses, meaning that the overall saving is £4,400 per month, or £52,800 per year.
Per staff member, this saving equates to £25 per month, or £300 per year.
Each community nurse bag bundle costs £295, and the trust has 180 nurses, all equipped with the bags. This means that the money saved in dressings alone makes the introduction of the bags cost-neutral in just 324 days, or 10.5 months. This is without accounting for the mileage saved through reduced restocking trips to base, savings levied through reduction of other stock waste items, and improved staff time efficiency of visits.
The Trust is now extending the analysis pilot, evaluating the reduction in trips to base, and other stock items to assess the full business case for improved bag design. Watch this space.