When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recalled all alcohol prep pads, alcohol swabs, and alcohol swab sticks last summer made by the Triad Group because of concerns about potential contamination, Baptist Memorial Health Care Corp. was prepared.

"It's like a disaster response," said Lauren Hollenbeck, the person who oversees risk management for Baptist Memorial's 14 hospital organizations during a webinar hosted by ECRI Institute on Wednesday about high-impact recalls. "You have to get in gear quickly and get information out quickly."

Especially in today's health care environment, where more hospital systems are expanding and acquiring multiple facilities, the message during the session was clear: Getting the full spectrum of personnel involved during a high-impact recall is critical. This includes not only clinical engineering and supply chain management, but legal counsel, risk management, executive level staff and end-users.

"It does take an army to get things done," said Hollenbeck.

Although Baptist Memorial was prepared, and handled the Triad recall successfully, Hollenbeck realized from the experience that identifying who the point person is at a newly acquired facility was the missing link — especially with new information about the recall coming out daily and the products hiding in trays and kits from other manufacturers.

The hospital thought they had cleared out all of the recalled products until a staff member in the ER took a Triad alcohol swab out of his pocket in front of one of the risk managers.

"Please go figure out who you need to talk to at those newly acquired facilities and get the information down to the end user," said Hollenbeck.

[Go here to find out how to watch an archived version of the webinar.]

Eric Sacks, director of ECRI Institute's Healthcare Product Alerts, called this a classic example of supply chain management ruling out the important role department users play in high-impact recalls.


Technology's role

Technology also played a part in getting the information out to hospital personnel about the Triad recall. Baptist Memorial uses ECRI Institute's Alerts Tracker, a Web-based alert and recall management system that automates distribution of each alert to the appropriate facility staff.

"Since there is no way we can go into all the facilities, we have to start with senior leadership. When I hear that folks are not responding to the alert tracker, I say, let's go back and revisit senior leadership on this work," said Hollenbeck.

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