The National Institutes of Health recently noted that most medical establishments use a whopping 35% of their entire budgets to manage their inventory systems. Needless to say, maximizing storage space could enable a medical institution to save massive amounts of money every year. Additionally, an efficient storage system will also reduce waste and save a lot of time for employees and patients alike. Following is an overview outlining the most important benefits of creating an efficient, fully maximized medical storage system.
Reducing Waste
An efficient storage system would make it easy for doctors, nurses and inventory managers to see which medications and supplies need to be used first. This would avoid the need to dispose of expired products that were stored in difficult to find places.
Additionally, efficient storage can prevent damage to valuable equipment. It keeps items in their place so that small, fragile items aren't inadvertently crushed, broken or otherwise damaged by larger ones.
Save Time
Spare hospital personnel the hardship of having to look through an entire storage room to find a small medical instrument or a few bottles of medicine. Compartmentalized storage systems often take up less space than traditional storage units and make it easy for hospital personnel to find what they are looking for in a matter of minutes.
Mobile anesthesia, cleaning, medication, linen and other types of carts are also important components of a maximized storage system. These carts can easily be stocked to include anything that would be needed for a day's work, are made to be space efficient and can hold many different supplies in a hygienic, easily accessible manner. They save time for both employees and patients alike, increasing patients’ satisfaction with the medical institution. Alternatively, mobile shelving units can be used if certain departments need large stocks of supplies that can be moved around between different rooms.
Cut Costs
It is not uncommon for medical institutions with disorganized storage space to order supplies and/or medicines that are already in stock. An efficient storage system would prevent this costly error. Furthermore, hospitals with efficient storage would not need numerous employees to manage the storage system.
Maximizing storage space could result in a hospital discovering that it does not need as much space for storage as previously thought. Many medical institutions that have begun using a lean process management system discovered that maximizing existing storage space totally eliminated the need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars building new storage facilities. Existing storage space that is no longer needed could be used for other purposes.
It will take time and research for a hospital to implement a maximized storage system. It may also take a small initial investment of money to purchase efficient storage options such as carts, mobile shelves or cloud space for digitalizing important patient records. However, the results are always more than worth it. Maximizing storage space saves money, increases hospital efficiency and prevents waste. Even more importantly, it boosts patient satisfaction as those receiving care are given the attention and treatment they need without unwarranted delays.