Large Hospital, Part of National Nonprofit Healthcare System
Location: Omaha, Nebraska
Project-at-a-Glance:
When a large, 330-bed hospital in our hometown of Omaha was in the thick of renovating its ICU Patient Wing, they noticed many of the patient rooms wouldn’t have adequate storage for much-needed patient supplies. We worked with them to change that.
In July 2016, a large 330-bed hospital — part of a national non-profit healthcare system in our hometown of Omaha, Nebraska — remodeled its ICU Patient Wing. The building renovation was well underway when the hospital’s Director of Materials Management realized that many of the patient rooms were not outfitted with the necessary storage for much-needed patient supplies.
The challenge and need:
Already existing millwork, needed organization
This was a challenge on its own, but another challenge was that the built-in millwork for the nurse servers had already been purchased and installed in the patient rooms — and the opening date for the hospital was quickly approaching. FlowCARE and our sister storage-solution vendor, Midwest Storage Solutions, have a long-term relationship with this local healthcare system, so we met with the ICU Nurse Manager and the Supply Chain team to get a better picture of needs, budget, and timeline (besides needing it ASAP).
The requests of team were three-fold:
- A nurse server storage solution that could integrate with the millwork already installed, but one that allowed for more organization and efficiency
- Patient supply cabinets on wheels so they could maneuver the nurse server units inside the room, but still be able to pull them out for quick restocking
- A server the offered keyless/RFID locks as well as the ability to organize and divide the space for patient room supplies
The solution:
Customized inserts for millwork and cabinets on wheels
We worked with the team to create the following:
- A non-pass-through version of our patented nurse server, which can be put on a mobile base with casters
- Pull-out, custom-sized trays with adjustable dividers of supplies, antimicrobial steel shelves for clean storage, and RFID locking capabilities for storing medications and needles
- A match between our nurse server cabinets and their millwork cabinets because we offer the same exterior finishes — HPL and Thermofoil — that their existing cabinets offer
The results: flexibility and organization for the hospital’s nursing staff
The patient supply carts we created could be easily maneuvered in and out of the hospital’s patient room. In addition, the nurse servers we created were a clear improvement over the existing built-in millwork nurse servers — the nurses and hospital stocking staff especially liked the keyless locking options, the custom-sized trays, and the pull-out, soft-closing medication drawers. All of these features combined to create a solution that’s much easier to access, and much easier to stock.
We’re already talking about projects where our nurse server solutions could be utilized for future needs — the mark of a successful project!
Related Projects
Take a look at some of our latest projects to see how the FlowCARE Nurse Server has made a difference for these hospitals:
UW Health, Wisconsin
Looking to stay ahead of the game in hospital design, Wisconsin’s premier research hospital worked with FlowCARE on a custom nurse server that would provide efficiency today — and into the future.
Brookings Health System
When a 25-bed hospital in the Midwest wanted to redesign their hospital around patient care and optimize the flow of materials from the dock to a patient’s bedside, we helped them deliver.