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Four Types of Pharmacy Storage Solutions to Improve Efficiency

Whether you work in a clinical, compounding, hospital, or industrial setting, pharmacists have a responsibility to ensure patients’ safety. It can be tough, especially if you’re short-staffed or lacking the right pharmacy storage to support your workflow processes. Experts agree that improving efficiency within your organization is possible, though. You simply need to know how to identify the opportunities and have the proper solutions in place. Therefore, we will discuss four types of pharmacy storage solutions that you can use to improve efficiency where it’s most needed.  The article will also provide clinical, compounding, hospital, and industrial pharmacists with answers to the questions listed below.

Why is proper pharmacy storage important?

pharmacy casework rotary filing cabinets

No matter if your primary focus is to find a better way to fill prescriptions, keep customers satisfied, increase profits, or eliminate stress, it is vital to remember this:

In order to make effective improvements in these areas, you must invest in and incorporate proper storage into your pharmacy design. Without access to it, staff can easily feel overwhelmed and make mistakes that put patients’ health and safety at risk.  

Using anything other than the right pharmacy storage solutions can also have a negative impact on medication quality and potency, causing ineffective performance even if used as directed. While exposure to environmental factors such as sunlight, temperature, and pests can jeopardize a drug’s integrity. In addition, you run the risk of subjecting prescriptions to possible contamination that can make them unsafe to consume, handle, and sell.

To maintain your reputation as a credible organization that puts patient safety first, you would need to take immediate action to remove damaged pharmaceuticals from the premises. Perhaps it would mean closing while bringing in outside help to assist with the extraction and restocking process. Along with inconveniencing patients, this could cost you a lot of money and time to fix.

Depending on the financial health of your organization, you might not have the cash flow to sustain operations. If so, personnel could face wage cuts, working fewer hours, or being furloughed. Don’t worry, though. Experts can design efficient pharmacy storage solutions to fit your budget and application needs, even during a global pandemic.  Choose from a wide selection that includes, but is not limited to, the list below.

  • Casework cabinets
  • Clinical pharmacy storage
  • Compounding pharmacy storage
  • Hospital pharmacy storage solutions
  • Industrial pharmacy storage
  • Pharmacy storage cabinets
  • Pharmacy storage
  • Rolling shelves on tracks
  • Rotary filing cabinets
  • Sliding shelves

How can the right pharmaceutical storage help with more efficiency and organization?

hospital pharmacy shelving systems

With access to the right pharmaceutical storage, achieving optimal efficiency and organization is easy. Especially, if you have identified where your organization needs to improve. Problem areas can exist everywhere, but the most common include:

  • Customer and employee job satisfaction
  • Inventory management
  • Reducing operating costs
  • Prescription fulfillment accuracy
  • Quality patient care
  • Revenue opportunities

While pharmacists strive to meet these demands with the utmost efficiency, many often find it difficult due to insufficient time. It’s not hard to realize once factoring in how much time employees spend speaking with insurance companies or returning calls from physicians and patients with urgent requests. Considering most provide added patient services such as immunizations, the window of time pharmacies can devote to routine tasks decreases even further. Industry-insiders say it typically leads to controlled chaos.

Fortunately, the right pharmacy storage solutions have the necessary versatility to help your organization implement more efficient and organized workflow procedures. So, you can eliminate the disorder that creates inefficiencies and run a smoother, more profitable operation. With proper training, staff can also gain the confidence to efficiently perform.

Find out how stainless steel pharmacy storage helped a hospital alleviate common workflow problems.

Different types of pharmacy storage

The four types of pharmacy storage solutions to help clinical, compounding, hospital, and industrial pharmacists improve efficiency are below.

Rotary filing cabinets

pharmaceutical rotating rotary filing cabinets

Pharmaceutical rotating rotary filing cabinets have a double-sided design that makes storing more in less space simple, safe, organized, and efficient. The flexible solution provides ideal storage if you have large quantities of supplies to accommodate, including:

  • Narcotics
  • Hanging bags
  • Medications
  • Patient records

To gain efficient, space-saving access to patient prescription drugs stored inside, simply push on the cabinets’ door or shelf.  Then, repeat this step to close the unit and use its built-in security lock to protect valuable inventory. Executing this simple measure helps regulate material handling while eliminating potential damage and loss. So, pharmacists always have efficient supplies on hand to meet changing patient health demands.

Find pharmaceutical rotary filing cabinets online

What should you do if there isn’t enough space to store and organize everything in the same footprint during the restocking process? Since the interior includes adjustable shelves, you can simply adapt them in ½ increments to create the necessary capacity. Not only does this allow your organization to maximize footprint efficiency, but it also ensures you have clearance space to prevent prescription damage. Units also include adaptable security drawers, roll-out medication shelves with adjustable dividers, and hanging bag rods in the design. So, pharmacists can easily configure the areas to keep items stored in the same compact footprint.

Architectural Revit Models

To help make your workspace more functional and efficient, configurations have the essential flexibility to accommodate different layout considerations. Options to pick from include:

  • Placed against the wall
  • Positioned back-to-back
  • Standing alone in the middle of the floor

You can also attach adder modules to starters if you need to expand your existing storage areas to accommodate inventory growth.

Modular Pharmacy Casework

modular pharmacy casework storage dispensary shelving

Modular pharmacy casework with storage and dispensary shelving makes handling and distributing medications safe, simple, and more efficient. The casegoods combine flexible, eco-friendly cabinetry, and quality hardware to create kits that meet demanding pharmacy standards. Along with featuring a versatile design, systems ship assembled and ready to use. Not only does this ease implementation, but it also allows for seamless and efficient integration.

As an innovative alternative to built-in millwork, the modular pharmacy casework allows convenient reuse and reconfiguration to fit your workflow needs.  You can also easily manage the process without spending money to modify or renovate your building, making it a more cost-effective option. Pharmacies can remain financially healthy while allocating the budget to improve inefficiencies in other areas essential to their daily operations.

Find modular pharmacy casework online

Typical configurations have adjustable shelves or cabinets and base storage with countertops to help make storing and dispensing drugs more efficient. Plus, quality hardware such as full-extension drawer slides with soft-close options to keep pharmacists from slamming compartments shut. Units also utilize concealed hinges that promote quiet use and affordability while providing pleasing aesthetics. You can even choose to integrate optional features into the casework. Some available selections include:

  • Equipping counters with side splash to ensure walls have the necessary stain and water damage protection.
  • Adding theft protection locks to cabinets and drawers.
  • Faucets and sinks to ensure pharmacists maintain proper hygiene and clean work areas, effectively reducing potential drug contamination.

Learn how a hospital pharmacy benefited from using storage cabinet casegoods to store pharmaceutical supplies.

Architectural Revit Models

Pharmacy roll track shelving

pharmacy roll track shelving

Pharmacy roll track shelving aims to maximize floor space by reducing your storage footprint using an overhead track as a guide. It combines mobile and static wire shelves to create a high-density storage system with the flexibility to compact and save space. Rather than incorporating multiple aisles, models utilize one movable aisle to minimize your footprint and provide better floor space efficiency.

Architectural Revit Models

Pharmacist simply slides units to the left or right to open an aisle and gain access to stored medications. Since the wire shelves are adjustable, you can create efficient stock display conditions with a simple shelf modification. You can also integrate optional storage bin kits to help with organizing smaller supplies that patients need essential access to.

Find pharmacy roll track shelving online

Along with remaining adaptable, the incorporated wire shelves allow ventilation to eliminate dust and promote cleanliness. They also permit light penetration for improved visibility, helping reduce misfiling errors. The optional bins have a waterproof and corrosion-free design with side grips to simplify handling.

Sliding pharmacy storage shelving

Sliding pharmacy storage shelving

Sliding pharmacy storage shelving reduces your footprint to maximize space efficiency while sliding left or right along floor rails. The front units mount to tracks that facilitate smooth relocation, eliminating the need to use extra aisle space and giving you improved access to the static row behind. So, you effectively utilize less space to store and organize medications. They are great to use in many pharmacy applications, from clinical and compounding to hospital and industrial settings.

Along with allowing you to compact your footprint in order to maximize space efficiency, the sliding shelves have a modular design. So, pharmacies can always increase storage capacity to accommodate inventory growth through extra module integration. Simply add more units to the front or sides now or later to create the essential storage capacity you need.

Find sliding pharmacy storage shelving online

Units have adjustable shelves and dividers that you can adapt to maximize storage use or customize the space to fit your organizational needs. Systems also incorporate Plexiglas bin fronts, which are typically shatter-resistant and provide increased prescription bottle label clarity to reduce errors. Additionally, models utilize double hinged doors with a key lock to ensure powerful narcotics remain protected from theft and tampering.

Buy pharmacy storage online

Clinical, compounding, hospital, and industrial pharmacy storage solutions are available to buy online. Configurations take anywhere from 10 to 35 business days to ship and include free dock-to-dock shipping. If you need any assistance or just want some help picking the right solution for you, please call us at 1-855-786-7667.

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