-Supply management is a year round process.
It kind of starts when the clinic ends.
[plastic wrap crinkles]
[clanking]
In the weeks afterward, we inventory
and organize the supplies to figure out what remains.
-Welcome to the Seattle/King County Clinic supply room!
-Then we start planning the next clinic.
Based on our previous usage number and existing inventory,
we then create our order lists which itemize
tens of thousands of supplies that we need.
All of the supplies that we get
are new supplies, and they are within the expiration date.
We take it
very seriously that we are a health care facility,
and so we want to make sure all of the items
are the same types of items
you would experience if you were to go
to a different health care facility in the community.
[car beeps]
And then about 5 to 6 weeks before the clinic,
we have the supplies delivered and we hold a week
long supplies sorting event.
-Six cans...
-There's tens of thousands of items
that we're having
to track and count and organize and store,
and some of them are teeny tiny,
you know, the size of a finishing nail.
-The dental burs are like little drill bits.
They're tiny.
They're different sizes, different shapes.
We have tens of thousands of burs that we have to count
each year.
-About three days before the clinic opens,
dozens of pallets
are moved from storage into the clinic facilities,
and we also take delivery of equipment,
instruments and even more supplies.
Then volunteers help to unpack
and distribute and lay out and set up all of these items.
Once the clinic opens, we have leads who track
and manage the supplies on site, resupplying areas
or placing additional orders if needed.
And then when the clinic is done,
we have one day to pack everything up
and we've got to return loaned and rented items
to the rightful owners and get out of the facilities.
And then after load out,
the supply management cycle repeats.
I mean, if people really sat down
and thought about it
and really took a look around and went,
“Oh, there's a lot of stuff that's in this clinic,
I wonder how that all got here?”
Then they may kind of start to realize
there's a lot of stuff.
But if we've done our job well, they have what they need
to care for the patients in front of them.
♪♪
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