Hospital Medical Supplies and Their Role in Patient Treatment

Every healthcare facility should be well equipped with the latest in medical equipment supplies and consumables. Why? Because medical products and consumables play an integral (and often understated) role in the healthcare sector, facilitating effective treatment and care at every step of a patient’s journey.

What are hospital medical supplies?
Hospital medical supplies, also known as medical consumables, cover a diverse range of products and materials and are used across countless medical scenarios. Needles, probe covers, syringes, procedural kits, grids, drapes, medical packaging and disposable surgical items all come under the term medical supplies, as do tools that include forceps, scalpels and scissors.

In addition to items used by healthcare practitioners and patients, the term consumables can also be used to describe products used by healthcare facilities to maintain a safe, protected and infection-free environment.

Areas of impact
An established provider of hospital medical supplies will possess an up-to-date understanding of the market and the types of consumables that clinicians require throughout key speciality areas.

Medical supplies are used across a range of environments and situations — from gynecology to optometry. To better understand the impact that supplies and consumables make, consider the following three situations as case studies:

Newborn care and paediatrics
Neonatal care is extremely specialised and requires the use of products appropriate to the size and condition of newborns. Hospital medical supplies used in a neonatal and paediatric setting are often used to monitor vital signs, as in the case of cerebral function monitoring. They may also be harnessed to maintain a newborn’s temperature and manage relatively common conditions including jaundice. There are many reasons why a newborn might require nutritional and feeding assistance and for these purposes, infusion and enteral feeding devices are also often utilised within a neonatal setting.

Critical care
Patients admitted to critical care require urgent and intensive assistance. Clinicians rely on a range of supplies to administer aid and stabilize a patient’s condition. IV consumables and infusion devices are mobilised to provide nutritional support whilst temperature management devices and inhalation sedation products are used to prepare a patient for surgery.

Infusion therapy
Infusion supplies assist in providing an alternative method of medication delivery to oral treatment and are commonly utilised in hospital and palliative care settings. Infusion consumables including IV pumps, needleless IV connectors, and IV comprehensive minibore and microbore extension tubing are essential hospital medical supplies, whilst closed system transfer devices protect healthcare professionals from coming into contact with hazardous substances.

The impact of technology on medical supplies
As technology advances, medical supplies and consumables have undergone a transformation which has resulted in increased durability, enhanced safety and improved quality. In time-critical situations, it is often the power of advanced medical supplies that helps to render quick and effective patient care. When paired with modern medical equipment and facilities, hospital medical supplies enable healthcare professionals to provide well-rounded patient care. To that end, accessibility to and the development of high-end healthcare consumables plays an integral role in improving patient wellbeing.

Healthcare facilities are continually evolving, as are the types of supplies they use. As time has passed, medical supplies and consumables have only become more accessible, affordable and advanced which has played an indisputable role in improving patient outcomes.