First Aid Supplies

HI DMS,

I am growing tired of Cintas first aid’s inability to communicate and I am ready to look for new first aid supply vendors.

Does anyone have any suggestions for another vendor?

Does anyone have any suggestion of supplies that should be in the first aid kit that are not?

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Thanks for opening this to comment!!!

Have you considered buying the supplies in bulk and having us restock the first aid kits ourselves? I would imagine we could purchase one of the large grey cabinets and make it a repository for the bulk goods. Then stock one of the large first aid boxes, take a picture, then post the picture on the inside of the door of the first aid box, with a message that says if anything is missing, you can find refill in the first aid restocking cabinet, please refill missing items. I’ve noticed many of the items are in some what color coated packaging making this a some what simple request.

The negatives I could see are theft and the hassle of restocking the bulk cabinet. I wonder if restocking would be a 3 times a year problem of a monthly problem? Also, if we put a RFID lock on the cabinet, we could have a log with rfid and time to track who is going in and out of the cabinet, kind of like the 3d Fab Cabinet.

Would you mind posting the costs of the Cintas program just to get an idea of if there would be any major savings?

Also, do we have an idea of how much product they claim to restock in a given time period?

Sorry I don’t have another supplier option, but I did reach out to a friend to see who they use at their clinic.

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For me buying in bulk is a good option for things like tylenol and bandaids etc which could be a good idea to do a DMS box for heavy used items.

The reason I wanted Cintas was to fulfil more speciality needs such as maintaining higher cost items such as burn gells, QuickClot and Blood Clotting Guaze. (Which IMO is where they have failed I have asked to speak to there manager since Friday last week and have received no calls. The last call today I have been told he will be hand delivered the message)

I think adding a lock to the first aid supplies is a bad idea but if someone wanted to add a sensor on how often it was open I think that would be good and a camera can be added for coverage.

Sure I can get the invoices. I will try to upload them after this message they show supplies but I really would like someone to audit them as I am not able to do it during the day.

Cintas Invoice # 5009541817 12_05_2017.PDF (23.6 KB)
Cintas Invoice # 5009692443 12_29_2017.PDF (24.3 KB)
Cintas Invoice # 5008997265 11_01_2017.PDF (24.6 KB)
Cintas Invoice # 5009856161 01_25_2018.PDF (23.8 KB)
Cintas Invoice # 5009856190 01_31_2018.PDF (21.2 KB)
Cintas Invoice # 5008997141 10_06_2017.PDF (24.1 KB)

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I get where you are coming from, I only make the dubious point of we are only putting a lock on the bulk stocking supplies not the multiple cabinets of first aid supplies scattered around the space. Also, the only barrier to opening is needing an RFID FOB. An item the vast majority of members at DMS should have on their person as it is required to not only get in to the space, but to also move through the space.

That all said a door open/close logger does much of the same and is a good alternative, but doesn’t provide an identity. You would know better than I, are we getting better at identifying members based on pictures?

Thanks for posting the invoices. I’ll try to take a good look into this after work.

I think overall if someone triggers an investigation we can identify who they are.

Ahh I understand what your saying on Bulk it’s possible we can make room in some areas that require a level of authentication above a normal member.

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RFID is a bad bad idea for locking up first aid stuff. If someone gets hurt & needs first aid stuff, that may leave a critical time lost due to opening a cabinet. Additionally I believe it would open us up for liability.

We used/use Zee medical. I have no first hand experience with them but I know they restock our first aid kits.
http://www.zeemedical.com/us/first-aid.html

Also Grainger or Fastenal keep stock maybe another source.

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I’m amazed Nick and Robert appear to have aligned on this, because I found their entire exchange unintelligable so I’ll try to correct what I thought was an easy mis-read leading to this concern:
Nick is suggesting putting BULK goods behind an RFID locked door.
The “daily use” first aid kits would still be free-for-all.

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Thanks I will give them a call

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Thanks Jast,
I swear I feel like I’m typing in English. But, I do fully understand the confusion as quick reading and common terms made this hard to keep clear. :smile:

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Upon further review Zee is owned by Cintas…

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Wow, another evil empire.

Thanks for clearing it up. I would have thought it would have been common sense not to lock it up. But I figured I’d point it out.

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I finally got a call from the manager and I stressed the importance of having our stock of trauma gear supplied.

He did recommend a trauma bag which seems like a good idea that we could have on the wall and available for use with the intent of going mobile to another area of the shop.

Could use CA assistance to stitch “Call 911 if bag is used”

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I’m sure we can find a soul to get that done

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It would be even better IMHO, to have some sort of a ‘must be destroyed to take the bag’ type of thing. Whether it be a ‘wax seal’ or ‘break glass’ type of thing, a true trauma bag should be 100% stocked and ready to go as opposed to the ‘I cut myself and need to find a bandage, but it’s not real trauma’. Requiring someone to physically change the status of the kit allows anyone to see that it was opened and needs to be checked so that someone didn’t ‘borrow’ something out of the kit.

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My only concern with a trauma bag is how many people would know what to do if an injury was bad enough to need a mobile trauma bag? I know we have some medical professionals and some other members whose professions require some trauma training but that can’t be a very large portion of our membership can it?

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@Adam_Oas

I think your right and I will look for something like fire extinguisher pull tab that is extremely easy to break.

@thatguy

Also agree but at the same time would you rather have it and not need it or need it and not have it?

My expectation in that moment if there is a situation and someone with either use it or not but first priority should be call 911.

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To follow up I asked for some of the pull tabs used on fire extingushers which should allow for quick access while preventing people from grabbing suplies out of it. I think it’s a good middle ground.

I am going to open up a new topic @thatguy see if we can get some EMT’s to do a class on stabilizing until they arrive.

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Not an EMT, but I have taught First Aid for Boy Scouts for years. I’d be happy to do a class. Also perfectly willing to defer to any paramedics that would rather step up.

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I’ve got a friend in the business. Chad Mooney at FTW Safety and Industrial Supplies, (817) 246-4518.

Consider it done as soon as I have the size needed for a trauma bag. Also @EthanWestern works for a company that does the fire extinguishers and may be a good resource for the medikit information.