WELL-THOUGHT-OUT STORAGE CAN LEAD TO A MORE EFFICIENT practice. Haphazard storage, on the other hand, can leave you and your
team constantly in search of important items or empty-handed in crucial moments—or even under a pile of fallen cartons when
you open an over-full closet.
There's one hard and fast storage rule, really, says Ralph Thibodeau, AIA, an architect in Austin, Texas, and the designer
of the 2007 Veterinary Economics Hospital of the Year, Atascocita Animal Hospital in Humble, Texas: "Take advantage of every square inch."
Once you move beyond that basic you-need-all-you-can-get issue, think about where you receive shipments, where you keep supplies
until they're used, and point-of-use storage. It's important to think of storage in terms of how supplies flow throughout
your hospital, because that goes hand in hand with having the materials you need on hand in the right place at the right time.
Welcome wagonWhen items enter your hospital they go to a loading area or a bulk storage room. Ideally, says Veterinary Economics Editorial Advisory Board member Mark Hafen, AIA, NCARB, you limit this function to just one room. That approach, he says,
enhances inventory control.
If you think your space is too limited, consider how often you're receiving shipments. You might be able to schedule more
frequent deliveries and reduce your storage needs, says Hafen, who's a senior partner with Animal Arts/Gates Hafen Cochrane
in Boulder, Colo.
Stage right
Storage solutions: Above and beyond
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Next, you generally move items to a staging area—for instance, the place where you temporarily keep medications after they
arrive but before they end up in the pharmacy. This could be as small as a closet, but remember to consider what types of
things you'll be staging. Key questions: How secure does this storage need to be? Does it need to include a refrigerator or
a dark box to accommodate certain products? And how close does this area need to be to the point of use? For example, you
could have a closet directly adjacent to the pharmacy. This allows you to store more drugs in a small space with a lot of
shelving, compared to an actual pharmacy where you need writing and work surfaces, too.
A closet located directly off of either a chemotherapy room or an intensive care room is another example. You may want to
limit access to the room, but it needs to be easily restocked. A simple closet with access directly from the hall and also
a door from inside the room addresses this issue.
Straight to the point
Storage at the scene, or point-of-use storage, can be tremendously helpful when you need that certain instrument, prescription,
or piece of medical tape. Cabinets in particular offer flexible options so you can choose the sort of storage that works best
for you.
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