Authors: (including presenting author): :
Chan MC(1), Wong KY(1)
Affiliation: :
(1)Department of Paediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, Queen Mary Hospital
Keyword 1: :
Digital inventory management
Keyword 2: :
Pasteurized donor breastmilk
Keyword 3: :
Neonatal intensive care unit
Introduction: :
PDBM stock management in NICU is critical for ensuring uninterrupted nutrition for hospitalized preterm infants. In the past, designated nurse counts PDBM bottles in the freezer manually, but this practice is found inconsistent and error prone, risking understocking of PDBM and causes premature cessation of PDBM feeds of some patients. A project is started in July 2025 to achieve better PDBM stock management.
Objectives: :
(1) No incidence of understock of PDBM causing premature cessation of PDBM feeds of patients (2) Achieve 100% accuracy in PDBM stock records (3) Reduce daily PDBM stock checking time by 80% (4) No triggering of freezer temperature out-of-range alarm after PDBM stock checking noted
Methodology: :
We employed Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) methodology across two improvement cycles. The first cycle identified manual counting by designated nursing staff as the primary source of errors, prompting implementation of validated daily counts by the Infant Feeding Coordinator. While this improved accuracy, the manual counting process is time-consuming and required repeated freezer openings, risking temperature instability. The second cycle introduced a mobile application capable of automated counting through photographic analysis (processed in < 5 seconds). This innovation eliminated the time-consuming manual counting of PDBM bottles while ensuring accuracy of PDBM stock record.
Result & Outcome: :
(1) No incidence of understock of PDBM causing premature cessation of PDBM feeds of patients after this project (2) Spot audits by ward manager showed that 100% accuracy in PDBM stock records is achieved. (3) Daily PDBM stock checking time reduced from 5 minutes to 1 minute. (4) No triggering of freezer temperature out-of-range alarm after PDBM stock checking noted
