Tyson Hodges demonstrates the Sharpie Taco he invented to mark test tubes for COVID-19 test kits.
A wooden Sharpie taco at Candi’s Sweat Shop in American Fork Hospital has made it so hundreds of people know exactly how much they should spit if they think they might have COVID-19.
Candi’s Sweat Shop is a renamed break room at the hospital where caregivers went to put together self-serve COVID-19 kits that would be used at testing locations, including the American Fork InstaCare.
Like other Intermountain hospitals, American Fork cut back on some elective surgeries because of the COVID-19 surge. That created some time for caregivers who work in surgery. They wanted to do something to support their coworkers, so they agreed to make COVID-19 testing kits.
As a joke, caregivers renamed their breakroom “Candi’s Sweat Shop” in honor of Candi Fortier, RN, charge nurse, who set up a system that allowed caregivers to put together COVID testing kits while on break or during other down times. One of the steps in that process involved caregivers carefully marking test tubes so patients submitting a test would know how much saliva to put in the tubes.
Candi Fortier used the "Tyson Taco" to speed up the production of COVID-19 self-testing kits.
“It was tying up a person and it took a considerable amount of time for one person to sit and mark these tubes at the two-millimeter mark,” says Donald Boyle, American Fork lab manager. “We needed that mark on there, otherwise the public didn’t know how much saliva to produce for the test.”
Donald says he went to Tyson Hodges, a facilities manager who’s over two hospitals and nine clinics in Utah County, and asked Tyson if he could invent a gizmo that would speed up the marking process.
“He has a very, very inventive mind,” Donald says.
Tyson took the challenge.
“I asked him for a couple of vials and I went home and found some scrap wood laying around, drilled a couple holes and brought it into them, and said, “Is this what you were envisioning?”
It was, but Tyson wasn’t satisfied.
Donald Boyle, lab manager, asked Tyson Hodges to figure out a better way to mark the test tubes and he did.
“When I got home that night, I came up with the clamshell idea they’ve been using,” he says. “Instead of having to put a vial in, hold it in place, and taking the second hand to mark it with a marker; I made one where the Sharpie was permanently in there. All you had to do is grab a vial and swipe it. They could go just as fast as they could swipe a vial.”
Donald says both gizmos worked quite well.
“I timed myself to see how fast I could go,” Donald says, “And I did 44 in one minute. Previously, caregivers might have done two or three in a minute. He saved us probably hundreds of hours of time by creating this.”
After that, Candi says they proved too effective in turning out kits.
“We made so many kits that they told us to stop making kits,” Candi says. “They said they’d let us know when they were ready for more.”
Tyson Hodges and his crew figured out a way to connect two shipping containers with a roof creating a place for testing to be done in the early days of the pandemic.
“It made me really proud of my team,” says Tamara Montgomery, surgical services manager. “We were just trying to find a way to contribute during times when our surgical procedures are down a bit. These guys just rallied.”
Donald says later the Supply Chain caregivers told them they now had a vendor who would sell them the tubes with markings already on them. That doesn’t mean the innovations won’t continue at American Fork. Their creativity has been going on for some time. Last year Tyson and his crew connected two shipping containers with a roof and wired them up electrically so they could be put to work as temporary office space when COVID-19 testing involved processing long lines of cars. He says they’re always trying to figure out a better way to do things.
“That’s one thing I’ve tried to talk with my team about,” he says. “Just because something was installed one way, or it’s been that way for 10 or 15 years, doesn’t mean it can’t change or can’t be improved. For us, we try to improve things all the time, because if we’re there working on it, something failed. Even if it lasted four or five years, it still failed, so we try to find a way to get it to where it won’t fail or have it last longer.”