Materiel management: a clinical experience.

It is easy to understand why unit managers are eager to embrace a comprehensive approach to materiel management. The system allows for the professionals from the purchasing, supply, and distribution areas to meet and work with the managers of individual departments and units. Recognizable outcomes of this system are improved staff satisfaction because of standardized products; improved nursing competency secondary to product familiarization, and improved quality of patient care because area managers have more time to devote to their individual unit functions. The serendipitous benefit is that areas and personnel within a hospital that were once diverse in goals and functions may now develop positive working relationships around the hospital's prime goal of quality patient care, a marketable commodity.