In the ever-evolving landscape of healthcare, where maximizing efficiency and optimizing workflows are critical, one practical tool has emerged as a game-changer: the medical cart. However, the true impact of a medical cart hinges on its meticulous organization. This practical yet powerful solution holds the key to unlocking streamlined operations and enhancing patient care delivery.

In this article, we will explore five ideas for organizing medical carts to optimize efficiency and increase patient safety in your healthcare practice. First, let’s examine how a well-arranged cart enhances workflows.

How an Organized Medical Cart Can Improve Workflows

Maximizing efficiency and streamlining workflows is crucial in healthcare, and an organized medical cart plays a vital role in achieving these goals. Capsa Healthcare’s Avalo Medical Carts offer numerous benefits, such as saving valuable time and preventing interruptions in delivering patient care.

Saves Time

Constantly searching for items and making multiple trips to find supplies leads to delays. Moreover, the need for staff to restock items on the go further adds to inefficiencies and overwhelms the team.

To address these challenges, maintaining an organized medical cart becomes crucial. Capsa Healthcare’s Avalo Medical Carts have a wide selection of organization accessories, ensuring easy arrangement and quick access to medical supplies and equipment.

Their large storage capacity and customizable configurations allow them to adapt to various healthcare applications, eliminating the need for multiple carts and streamlining workflows. Furthermore, the proven lock systems ensure items are secure, preventing time wasted searching for misplaced supplies.

Prevents Interruption of Workflows

When a cart is arranged correctly, with items categorized, labeled, and stored logically, employees can quickly retrieve what they need, minimizing disruptions and keeping workflows uninterrupted.

It is critical to properly maintain your cart to guarantee smooth operations. This involves regular cleaning, restocking essential items, and eliminating unnecessary clutter. Furthermore, providing proper employee training on cart usage, emphasizing organization, and establishing effective communication and safety protocols all play a significant role in maintaining a seamless workflow.

Capsa Healthcare’s Avalo Crash Cart Enhances User Efficiency

Boston Medical Center (BMC), the primary teaching affiliate for Boston University School of Medicine, is the largest safety net hospital and busiest trauma center in New England. To address issues with outdated and inconsistent crash carts, BMC launched a quality improvement project. A Code Committee of healthcare professionals identified three challenges that impeded BMC’s workflows: cluttered carts, difficulty locating stock, and inconsistent cart access. 

After a thorough evaluation, BMC selected Capsa Healthcare’s Avalo Crash Cart for its well-designed drawers, ergonomic workspace, functionality, and security.

Here are the impressive benefits that the Avalo Crash Cart provides:

Usability and Workflow Optimization:

• The cart’s drawers open fully, providing easy access to supplies, and remain closed when the cart is in motion
• Carefully designed drawers with varying depths and dividers optimize the visibility, grouping, and organization of medications
• Accessories like the sharps container, oxygen tank, and writing shelf are strategically placed for an ergonomic workspace, enhancing functionality and efficiency

Maneuverability and Mobility:

• The lightweight cart enables effortless movement and transportation within the medical facility, even during fast-paced emergencies
• Smooth-rolling lockable casters allow for swift and seamless mobility, facilitating rapid response
• The durable design provides cart stability during transportation, minimizing the risk of accidents or instability

Security:

• The cart contents are secured with a breakaway locking handle, allowing quick access to all drawers and supplies for timely code response by swiftly breaking the tamper-evident seal
• Secure medication storage ensures the availability of critical medications while preventing unauthorized access or tampering
• Labeled drawers make it easy to identify supplies and medications, reducing the risk of errors and enabling timely administration, thereby improving patient outcomes

In the redesign process, BMC used the Avalo integrated divider system to re-organize their medication and supplies. The current stock was analyzed, with some items removed and others added. Clinicians provided positive feedback, highlighting improved organization, efficiency, and patient safety.

With the Avalo Crash Cart, BMC successfully standardized its code carts and recognized that a superior emergency cart goes beyond physical design. It combines thoughtful design, functionality, and logical organization to improve user efficiency and enable prompt code team response.

5 Ideas To Keep Your Medical Cart Organized

Effectively organizing your medical carts brings significant advantages. Here are five simple ways to achieve that.

1. Keep Common Supplies Stocked

Proper inventory management plays a vital role and is essential for administering high-quality care, especially when it comes to standard medical supplies such as:

• Syringes, cannulas, and needles
• Endoscopic devices
• Catheters and catheter kits
• Stethoscopes
• Monitoring equipment
• Clinical swabs, gauze, sponges, pads, tongue depressors, cotton balls, etc
• Medications and pills

Avalo Treatment Carts offer large capacity and flexible organization of supplies in seamless drawers. Drawers are available in three different depths to accommodate the largest bulk items to the smallest medical supplies, with all drawers offering an array of flexible divider systems.

Additionally, creating a checklist helps establish that the medical cart is always stocked and organized. Your staff can use the checklist at the beginning and end of each shift to make sure everything is in place. It’s important for medications to have expiration dates so that medical professionals don’t have to search through each container to replace expired ones.

2. Label Drawers and Items As Needed

Once you arrange your drawers and compartments, label them as needed. Labels provide an easy visual, so you don’t waste time rooting around. This is especially beneficial for large practices since one medical supply cart often has multiple users.

Consider adding an organizer with compartments to your cart and separating the drawers and compartments depending on function. For example, you can keep all your pediatric equipment and supplies in one drawer, so you know exactly where they are stored during an emergency. 

Label individual items so they’re easy to track, especially if you have liquids transferred to secondary bottles or pre-filled syringes with different doses of substances.

Boston Medical Center developed user guides to facilitate better implementation and included them on each code cart. These guides were thoughtfully designed, featuring vivid pictures depicting labeled drawer contents. Clinicians received an overwhelmingly positive response, with users highly praising the new design.

3. Store Gloves, Masks, and Isolation Gowns at Dedicated Stations

Gloves, masks, and isolation gowns must be used at every appointment, but they take up a lot of space. It’s best to store them at dedicated stations within each room, freeing up space on your medical cart.

4. Remove Hazardous Items and Large Medical Equipment

Consider storing hazardous items in the lowest drawer, ensuring that it has dual-locking capabilities. Some medical carts need on-board trash and sharps containers, so storing them within a double drawer prevents contamination, eliminates risks of sharps injuries, and keeps employees and patients safe.

Depending on your practice, it may be best to remove them altogether. Large medical equipment should never be stored on your cart to avoid slowing it down; consider placing such equipment in its own designated location.

5. Regularly Clean and Sanitize the Carts

Unsterilized medical equipment is one of the top transmitters of harmful microorganisms. The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that one of every 31 hospitalized patients acquires healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs) during treatment, amounting to over 633,000 patients annually.

Patients, nursing staff, and healthcare providers may all touch the medical cart during a single appointment. Diagnostic tools also come in direct contact with patients and the cart, making infection transmission much more likely.

To safeguard your staff and patients from diseases, it is crucial to regularly clean the medical cart and its accessories, including:

• Drawers
• Smooth panels
• Work surfaces
• Accessories such as removable drawer trays, breakaway locks, braking casters, oxygen tank holders, I.V. Poles, etc.

Find Medical Carts That Suit Your Care Team’s Needs

The proper organization of a medical cart is not only a matter of convenience but a critical factor in enhancing workflow efficiency and ensuring patient safety. By implementing the five principles discussed in this article—stocking common supplies, labeling drawers and items, creating dedicated stations for essential items, removing hazardous objects and bulky equipment, and regularly cleaning and sanitizing the carts—you can maximize the value of your medical cart and optimize its contribution to your practice.

Contact Capsa Healthcare for more information about our wide selection of Medical Cart solutions that promote orderly storage and organization where it matters most. Our highly versatile Avalo Medical Carts offer tailored packages to meet a wide range of workflow and storage requirements. You can customize your medical cart with just two simple steps—selecting the desired cart height and color—and choosing an accessory package. Trust Capsa Healthcare to provide adaptable healthcare solutions that cater to your practice’s unique demands.