Why does a supply room matter?

You might say, “It’s just a closet. What is the big deal? ”  Think about the frequency of use of supplies in your medical facility, the number of users, the dollar value of the materials that move through the supply storage room and the impact to patients of these supplies. While not all patients have a certain test, every patient is touch uses some of the supplies from the storage room during his or her stay.

It is important to have specific supplies available when needed, sometimes in an emergency. Staff members need to know where to look for supplies and know the quality materials that they need will be available in the right quantity. Overall inventory management prevents nightmare scenarios of a total supply outage. This saves time and money, reduces footsteps and stress, and might make the difference between life and death in an emergency.

IMPROVE STAFF MORALE

Accessible, well-organized healthcare storage solutions boost morale by reducing frustration and minimizing physical strain, allowing staff to devote their attention to patient care.

Reduce frustration associated with looking for lost items.

Store items at point of need.

Prevent musculoskeletal strain.

Organization

One of the best approaches to organizing a workspace is using the following methods:

• Sort – Determine what you have and need. Identify what you don’t need.
• Set in order – Create a place for everything you need and put everything in its place. Remove what you don’t need.
• Shine – Clean the area thoroughly.
• Standardize – Provide tools, rules, markings, and other requirements.
• Safety  – Build worker safety and ergonomics into the storage organization.

Specific organizing tips

• Maximize vertical wall space. Keep things off the floor. Any item put on the floor is susceptible to damage from floor cleaning or spills. In addition, a box on the floor is a flat surface that invites “stuff” to be put on top of it.
• Use adjustable wall organizers, preferably see-through. This might be wire shelving or varying size open bins. Renovating all storage areas in this category to provide the same shelving will likely require some expense, but relatively small compared to the expected benefits.
• Determine the best supply locations for ease of use. Put the most-used items at eye or hand level. Allocate more space for more frequently used items to avoid frequent trips to central storage. Allocate more space for big items, less space for small items.
• Put like supplies together. Define an overall color-coding scheme to group similar types of supplies.
• Affix sturdy but removable labels. People should be able to quickly see where their needed supply is. The label must be easily changed if supply item locations are changed.
• For safety and ergonomics, put heavier items on the mid to bottom shelves.
• Utilize first in, first out supplies management in the supply room, i.e., during restocking, new supplies are put at the back or bottom of the specific storage location.

While it may be difficult for some individuals to plan or execute a major storage room reorganization, most folks will be quite happy with the end result if it saves them time or reduces stress. Who doesn’t like working in a clean and well-organized environment? For more help getting started with storage room standardization, get in touch with Spacesaver Storage Solutions to improve your supply room storage effectiveness.

Healthcare facilities need to be able to utilize as much floor space as possible to best serve their patients. However, common storage spaces are often filled with other medical supplies that need to stay at ground-level. If you’re looking to save space, one solution is to implement a wall-mounted storage system to retrieve folded wheelchairs easily. Connected to a simple, yet powerful Lift, the wall mount will instantaneously bring folded wheelchairs down to you right when you need them.

Free Up Space in Your Supply Room at Your Medical Facility

The Wall Mount Lift makes storing and retrieving wheelchairs as easy as possible. All lifts are six-feet wide, making it easy to place one in even the smallest supply storage areas. This mobile storage machine bolts right to your wall, so you won’t have to remodel or adjust your current shelving. The wall mount itself is incredibly easy to use; providers within your healthcare facility will have no issue loading and unloading wheelchairs onto the dock. After pressing the up and down switch, your high-density wall mount will move the folded wheelchairs out of the way and into a safe storage space.

High-density mobile storage systems eliminate wasted aisle space in supply rooms and other areas.

Maximize vertical space with configurable shelving, modular bins, and steel pegboard.

Achieve Better Healthcare or Hospital Supply Room Organization with Our Lifts, Mobile Storage and Pegboards

We understand that storage spaces for medical supplies and other equipment vary greatly from facility to facility. Our team will work with you to devise a system tailored to your specific needs. With seamless software integration, we will ensure that members across your facility have uninterrupted access to the equipment they need to deliver quality patient care. Rely on Spacesaver Storage Solutions for industry-leading healthcare storage solutions! Contact us today for assistance on improving your supply room storage.

Contact us today for your health storage needs.