First regional clinical tender a success for Gippsland health services

Five Gippsland health services are benefitting from the first clinical cluster tender conducted in the region for single-use patient air transfer mattresses.

The tender, which resulted in a cost saving of up to 50 per cent across the region, was led by Latrobe Regional Health, supported by HSV and included West Gippsland Healthcare Group, Central Gippsland Health Service, Bairnsdale Regional Health Service and South Gippsland Hospital.

Single-use patient air transfer mattresses are increasingly used at health services to transfer patients from a theatre to a hospital ward. Patients that exceed a certain weight – usually around 80-100kg – are moved using the single-use air mattresses which are more cost-effective and hygienic than reusable mattresses.

Typically used to transfer a patient from a trolley to a bed, the patient air transfer mattresses are inflated before use, lowering the risk of staff injuries because less force is required to move patients.

The single-use patient air transfer mattresses lower the risk of infection associated with reuse and cost only three per cent of a reusable transfer mattress, which require significant capital investment as well as ongoing maintenance, cleaning and laundering.

Many health services are expanding the use of single-use patient transfer air mattresses to areas such as aged care, says HSV Senior Customer Relationship Manager – Southeastern Region, Emma Hammond.

“We identified that costs were going up due to this increased usage and there was also a significant price variation across the region. We knew we could cap that by leveraging bulk purchasing,” she says.

The single-use air mattresses will be included in a future HSV collective agreement, and the regional tender allowed health services to benefit from reduced costs in the interim, Emma says.

Perioperative Services Manager at Central Gippsland Health Service Mauricio Yanez says there were a lot of benefits to HSV leading the tender.

“The team worked well together, and we achieved great outcomes not only for hospitals in the region, but also for patients,” Mauricio says.

The framework used for the single-use air mattress tender could be applied to future clinical tenders in Gippsland, he says.

“It proves that regional agreements can work – and now that we’ve completed this process, we can use it for other equipment and products. Regional hospitals should be able to collaborate and buy in bulk to reduce our costs.”

Chief Operating Officer at Latrobe Regional Health Jon Millar said that in addition to cutting costs, the tender process was valuable because it brought together subject matter experts from across health services in the region.

“This opened up the opportunity for us to collaborate in areas other than procurement – the benefits were multifaceted,” he says.

“It’s helpful for us to have a single supplier because we have that continuity of service. If demand increases at one health service, we can borrow stock from each other. This is huge because in the past with three or four different suppliers, we wouldn’t have been able to do that.”

Jon said that with one regional tender complete, the group would work with HSV to identify the next opportunity that will benefit the region.

“The support HSV provides us with locally is invaluable. We work closely with Emma Hammond who offers a lot of support to the region.”

Image above: Staff at Latrobe Regional Health demonstrate how to use the air transfer mattress.