Optimizing IV Bag Drug-Admixing 

How Our Collaboration with Baxter BMI Team Led to a Cost-Effective and Efficient Workflow Solution in Chinese Hospitals.

Context

Baxter BMI team (Business Model Innovation) approached us to identify new opportunities for “intravenous bag drug-admixing” processes in hospitals and the Chinese market. Our focus was workflow efficiency, safety and cost optimization.

Heavily involved in all project phases,  I took a specific ownership on the field research, workflow optimization, industrial design and customer management.

Agency: Worrell Shanghai

Client: Baxter - BMI Team

Date: 2015-16

Designers: Benoit Vitoux (ID/UX/Research)/ Jeroen Vos(Eng) / Gump Wang (Research).

Key Steps

These are the main steps of this project:

1. In-depth field research in 5 hospitals across the country (A+ to AAA) mapping user journeys and identifying first hand key insights.
2. Co-creations sessions involving the key clients, users and experts stakeholders to identify potential concept directions. 
   
3. Iterative prototyping and user feedback of the overall system items and workflow.
   
4. Pilotes in a set of partner's hospitals across the country.

Outcome & metrics

This work resulted in the design of two concept initiatives

Nurse Assistant - Ward station

Innovative plug and play workstation admixing workstation to be installed directly in hospital wards. We redesigned the entire workflow, tools and furniture to enable efficient operations. The system was piloted by Baxter in partner hospitals in Hangzhou and Shanghai 

• Enabled a ~20% efficiency gain, with  6 nurses able to produce and administer 150+ Intravenous bags safely within an hour .
  
• Hitting projection target of < 20.000 Rmb (3000€) per unit.
  
• Positive user and partner hospital feedback, with a roadmap for further optimizations.

Baxter Admixing Lab

An ambitious foldable drug admixing container lab for tier-2 developing hospitals to be able to take over this process entirely. The concept was piloted by Baxter in Kunming (Yunnan) and Qilu Hospital in Jinan (Shandong).

•  2000 IV Bags daily output, incorporating all steps from consumable storage to shipment.
• 1 week from installation to operation of this 40 feet container.
• Compact form factor 30 sqm footprint folded and 90sqm unfolded.
  

Disclaimer: For confidentiality purposes, some key insights are omitted in this case study.

The Nurses Assistant workstation

Baxter Admixing Lab