A Day in Hospital Supply

One day I started a conversation with one of the Mercy Ships photographers as I was making some deliveries to the various hospital wards.  He started taking my picture as I went about my routine.  Apparently one turned out that he was willing to post and here it is. I was caught in the act of working.

All of the crew are volunteers and work full time. My hours are 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM with an hour lunch and rotating call for evenings and weekends.  Not a bad schedule.

We start each day with a group meeting so we are all caught up on the issues and priorities of the day, we divide up responsibilities and then pray before we start our work.
The priorities are the operating rooms and the wards.  We have some computerized storage cabinets but many are manual storage cabinets and shelves which we visually check each work day and restock as needed. This is usually finished in the mornings.  After that we handle other orders and other special requests.

One of the big challenges this year is implementing a new inventory software system.  There are always start up issues whenever an organization changes to a new system, and we have done a lot of problem solving and adjustments in the couple months I have been here. We are getting better at how to use this system more efficiently.

In addition to the Wards we get special orders from several other medical departments.  We also have to move and rotate supplies, restock our central area, and do cycle counts.  Because we get our supplies shipped from the USA or from The Netherlands, we never know when the next one will arrive.  We can be pretty sure they will be late.  It's never easy to get a container into an African port and get through customs.  When there are shortages we also get resupplied by people traveling to the ship as they bring an extra duffle bag packed full of medical supplies.

We recently finished our eye surgery. We were proud to say that we never had to cancel one surgery due to a supply shortage. As a result over 1500 Cameroonians who were blind can now see. 

Chuck