Dustin Patterson & Brayden Bennett | Regional Sales Managers, LogiQuip®

In a study done in 2022, it was estimated that one minute of Operating Room downtime can cost over $100. Missing, incorrect, or compromised instrumentation will cause cases to be delayed pushing other cases back, causing patient dissatisfaction or worse, and costing the department millions a year. An efficient and wellorganized Sterile Storage plays an important role in preventing delays by ensuring that supplies are where they need to be when they need to be there.

In this series, we talk about some ways to make your Sterile Storage more efficient, beginning with increasing your storage capacity.

Sterile Storage areas are notoriously short on space, but there are ways to increase storage capacity in even the smallest room, starting with moving away from traditional plastic bin systems.

Traditional plastic bin systems create a LOT of wasted space – upwards of 1’’ of space between bins side to side. Leveraging fine mesh wire baskets with lane dividers creates a clean and highly visible system without wasting space, increasing your storage capacity by up to 60%. You can take this a step further with a kanban flipper, creating a more efficient two-bin system without wasting space.

In addition, plastic bins require regular maintenance to remove dust and debris. The Joint Commission states in standard IC.01.04.01, “Clean supplies and equipment are clean and free of spills, dust, stains, tape, and adhesive residue and are kept separate from dirty supplies and equipment.” Fine mesh wire baskets with dividers and kanban flippers achieve this while saving valuable space.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of “Time is Money” in February where we will continue our discussion about how to create highly efficient Sterile Storage areas to help keep your OR running smoothly.

Beyond Clean Healthcare Storage Experts™ Biography:

Dustin Patterson is currently the Mid-West Regional Sales Manager with LogiQuip® Healthcare Storage Solutions, based in Kalamazoo, MI, and has served healthcare organizations exclusively for over 30 years. Working alongside Dustin is Brayden Bennett. Brayden is LogiQuip’s Northeast Regional Sales Manager.

Combined, Dustin and Brayden bring over 21 years of experience in space planning and healthcare storage. Working closely with hospitals and surgery centers to develop tailored solutions using a mix of best practices, Lean principles, and industry-leading storage solutions, Dustin and Brayden have an in-depth understanding of Sterile Processing Departments and have worked with many to maximize storage spaces, balancing trade-offs between high-capacity storage layouts and workflow efficiencies.