Spacesaver Creates a Showplace at the University of Oregon 

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See how this innovative hospital utilized technology to deliver the highest level of care for its patients and accountability for its staff.

Prescriptive Security for Prescription Delivery

<h2>Around the Clock Access</h2>
<p>When an illness or injury escalates to the level of requiring a hospital stay, it is vital that you receive the care necessary to get on the mend as soon as possible. For the hospital hosting your stay, this means the correct staff members to get from diagnosis to discharge must be on-site.</p>
<p>While ideal in theory, increased staffing concerns and budget monitoring led an East Montreal hospital to seek out an alternative that could streamline the required number of staff members and boost accuracy and accountability in the delivery of medications.</p>
<p>The main concern for the hospital was in the role played by their pharmacy in the treatment of patients. In order to ensure the right diagnosis is paired with the right medicine and distribution method and timing, a pharmacist must oversee and approve the process, which meant they would need to be on-site 24/7. Knowing this would incur a significant cost for the facility, they reached out to their Spacesaver consultant and our more than 50 years of designing and delivering high-quality systems to provide a cost-effective solution that offered security and accountability.</p>

Understanding how storage impacts your daily functions. Our insights into what is needed most when it comes to storage, and partner with you to create a solution that works in tandem with your facility’s needs.

Healthcare Storage Guide

<h2>Supporting A Comprehensive Diagnosis</h2>
<p>Our consultant knew that when dealing with something as delicate as the health of another person, no decision can be made in haste. And, as this project centered around a public hospital who would be required to put the work out for bid, they needed to take potential competition into consideration. Much like the process to determine the cause of an illness, they completed a thorough workup of the hospital’s functionality in order to provide a detailed recommendation for the best possible solution.</p>
<p>With this knowledge at-hand and a <a href="/healthcare" aria-label="healthcare storage solutions">history of delivering high-quality results</a>, our consultant was able to partner with the project’s architect early in the A&D process to provide valuable insight that helped shape the necessary project specifications. Insight, which allowed them to win the project after about a year and a half of evaluation by the hospital’s administrators and advisors.</p>

<h2>An Impact Beyond the Shift</h2>
<p>A must-have feature for the hospital was that the system could function seamlessly outside the assigned hours of the hospital’s pharmacists. Upon taking stock of the individuals involved in the process, their roles, and how their efforts combined to serve their patients, we found that with the right storage solutions in place, pharmacists could work their assigned shift and, before leaving for the day, assess and allocate necessary medicines for distribution by staff while they are off the clock. <b>Let’s take a look at each of those systems and the role they play in this installation:</b></p>

<h4>Pass-Thru Lockers</h4>
<p>These <a href="/products/lockers/evidence-locker" aria-label="evidence locker product details">wall-integrated, two-sided systems</a> are ideal for upholding the integrity of the materials that pass through them. On one side, pharmacists utilize secure doors to access the compartments of each individual locker whose respective doors can be opened by staff on the other side. This allows them to allocate and store the appropriate medication for a specific patient, holding it safely until the assigned staff member enters their unique code to retrieve it.</p>

<h4>ControLoc® Technology</h4>
<p>Spacesaver’s ControLoc® digital locking mechanism offers a great way to create, recognize, and track staff member access. In this instance, ControLoc documents which individuals have accessed the system, the lockers they entered, and the date and time of each entry. As such, hospital administrators knew where each medication was located at any given time and who was responsible for them.</p>

<h2>Saving Time, Resources, and Lives</h2>
<p>One custom feature the hospital required of our team and solutions was for the system to allow for access to multiple doors with a single login sequence. With prior systems, users would have to enter their login information for each individual locker door, causing an unnecessary amount of time to complete the task or multiple trips.</p>

<p>When using our custom system, staff members enter their credentials and each door they have been assigned access to lights up. Then, starting with the lowest numbered door, each will and unlock and blink to indicate its contents are ready for retrieval. Once one door is opened and closed, it will automatically lock, and the next door will open. Each event is recorded in the audit log, and the process continues until all assigned doors have been accessed.</p>
<p>With these innovative solutions in place, administrators and staff were able to improve their processes and automate functions that once required an on-site presence to fulfill. This has led to increased savings in both time and budget, while at the same time allowing the hospital to have a stronger understanding of who is handling and administering these high-value narcotics and drugs at all times.</p>

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A student health center uses healthcare lockers to improve patient comfort and convenience.

Secure Healthcare Lockers at Student Health Center

<h2>Emphasizing Health & Wellness On Campus</h2>
<p>The college experience is full of fun and personal growth for many students, but it can also be a time of stress, uncertainty, and even illness. The demand for student health services on campuses has been increasing in recent years, not only due to common ailments and injuries but also because of an increased awareness of mental health issues and the fact that more students with disabilities and chronic medical conditions are pursuing higher education.</p>
<p>These trends are driving many campuses to place a stronger emphasis on health, wellness, and preventive care. Expanded programming and services are part of the solution, and campuses are also renovating, relocating, or constructing new student health centers to help ensure that students are aware of health resources and can conveniently access them.</p>
<p>Students perform better academically when their physical and mental health needs are met.</p>

Day Use Locker Brochure

<h2>Meeting Students Where They Are</h2>
<p>That’s why this university relocated a variety of health services to the heart of campus. By moving a wellness center, a counseling clinic, and an urgent care clinic to the multi-story student union in a central location, campus leaders hoped to increase student awareness of health resources and improve utilization.</p>
<p>Because the new location was convenient to nearby classroom buildings, students could schedule appointments between classes. Clinic staff knew that students would appreciate the convenient location, but they also realized it could lead to a serious increase in their lost and found inventory. To avoid the hassle and wasted time involved when belongings are left in examination rooms, they wanted a secure place for students to put their textbooks, backpacks, and other belongings during appointments. They wanted students to feel comfortable during their sessions, without having to worry about forgetting their belongings or wondering if they were secure.</p>

<h2>A New Approach to Patient Storage</h2>
<p>As clinic staff thought through their wish list for the new lockers, they knew that durability was key. They didn’t want to have to make frequent maintenance calls or deal with unsightly dings, dents, and scratches. In addition to being durable, the lockers needed to be secure, accessible, and conveniently located, and they would also need to integrate with the new clinic’s interior design.</p>

<p>Clinic staff wanted high-quality lockers to reflect the institution’s prestige. The local Spacesaver consultant had worked on other projects around campus, so he was able to work effectively with the project’s furniture dealer to design and order <a href="/products/lockers/day-use-locker" aria-label="day use locker product details">Spacesaver Day Use Lockers</a> that were a perfect fit for the available space.</p>
<p>The lockers are located in a corridor that leads to examination rooms, and the locks are programmed for shared use. That means a student can select an empty locker on the way to their appointment, deposit their belongings, and enter a code to keep their items secure. At the conclusion of their appointment, they can enter the code to open the locker, retrieve their belongings, and leave it empty for the next user.</p>

<h2>Peace of Mind</h2>
<p>The new lockers help students feel more at ease during their appointments, because they know their belongings are secure and they don’t have to worry about leaving something behind at the clinic. The lockers’ high quality and durability also reflect the university’s prestige and its enduring commitment to health and wellness.</p>

healthcare personal storage locker install story

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Spacesaver’s compact cold storage systems save space, save time, and improve organization in a pathology lab’s walk-in refrigerator.

Compact Cold Storage in a Pathology Lab

<h3>Cold storage is expensive storage. Every cubic inch counts.</h3>
<p>When a walk-in refrigerator is storing biological specimens for medical testing, every moment counts, too — because every vial represents a patient who is anxiously awaiting medical test results.</p>
<p>Pathology Associates Medical Laboratory’s National Reference Laboratory, located in Spokane, Wash., provides medical testing services for PAML’s nationwide network of partner hospitals. Although routine medical tests are conducted throughout that local network, samples that require more esoteric testing are sent to the lab in Spokane, which has the highly specialized equipment required to conduct molecular diagnostics, cytogenetic analysis, and other tests.</p>

<p>The lab has grown rapidly over the past few years. A number of smaller refrigerators originally housed the samples, but the facility eventually began to run out of room. Several years ago PAML invested in a large walk-in refrigerator and stocked it with wire carts to hold test tubes and vials. But as the facility’s daily volume of specimens continued to grow, the system became increasingly difficult to use.</p>

The Spacesaver solution more than doubled the lab's storage capacity.

<h2>Crowded Carts Design Challenge</h2>
<p>“It wasn’t very efficient or effective,” said Tony Pereira, accessioning manager. “We would have to move carts around to get to the cart we needed, and we didn’t have much room. Only one person could be in there looking for samples at a time.”</p>
<p>Pereira’s staff frequently conducts sample retrievals, which are necessary when the provider requests additional testing or to verify initial results. Orders for additional testing require patient samples to be retrieved from cold storage. Timely retrievals are important for two main reasons: First, retrievals allow the patient to avoid return trips to their local hospital or clinic to give additional samples. Secondly, fast retrievals minimize the wait time before definitive results are delivered.</p>
<p>Layne Ainuu, the lab’s enterprise accessioning manager, agreed that the lab’s storage system needed an overhaul to improve customer service and accommodate growth. “We wanted to utilize the current footprint of our walk-in refrigerator but we needed to increase the holding volume,” he said. “I looked at our projected growth and thought, ‘We’re going to run out of room.’”</p>
<p>The facility’s technical lab had recently undergone an expansion, so adding another walk-in refrigerator&nbsp;wasn’t an option. The staff had to figure out a way to store more vials in the same amount of space, while still ensuring the delicate specimens’ integrity.</p>



<p>Learn more about Spacesaver compact mobile systems used in this project.</p>

Basics of High-Density Mobile Shelving

<h2>Increasing Capacity & Saving Time</h2>
<p>The nearby Spacesaver consultant worked with staff&nbsp;to develop detailed storage plans. Ainuu worked with Pereira and procurement staff to acquire funding and evaluate vendors. As they evaluated various solutions, they were looking for four main things:</p>
<ul>
<li>Hard numbers on how much additional storage capacity could be gained with each vendor’s option</li>
<li>A system that could hold up to constant near-freezing temperatures without rusting or malfunctioning</li>
<li>A system that would maintain or even improve retrieval times</li>
<li>A well-organized, professional appearance</li>
</ul>



Enterprise Accessioning Manager

<p>“The other vendors presented solutions that were only slight variations of what we already had,” Ainuu said. “The volume increase with Spacesaver was a huge decision-maker for us.”</p>
<p>The team at PAML decided that Spacesaver’s compact cold storage solution met all their goals. The project increased storage capacity by at least 130 percent, a fact that is apparent from a look at photos taken before and after the Spacesaver project was completed. PAML staff worked closely with their local <a href="/partners">Spacesaver consultant</a> to achieve this result, measuring the sizes of test tubes and vials, repurposing the shelving they had already purchased, and configuring a system that neatly filled the allotted space.</p>



For larger projects, Spacesaver’s ActivRAC can help you save space, save time, improve organization, and ensure staff safety.

Operations Manager

<h4>The lab achieved the following benefits:</h4>
<p><strong>Saves space.</strong><br>
Spacesaver’s compact cold storage system&nbsp;helped the facility boost its storage capacity by over 130 percent.</p>
<p><strong>Saves time.</strong><br>
Staff can quickly store and retrieve samples. They no longer have to move carts to get what they need.</p>
<p><strong>Improves morale.</strong><br>
The system’s tidy appearance and smooth operation means that staff can focus on their mission, rather than struggling with inconvenient storage.</p>



<p>The system’s convenience, durability, and efficiency have also boosted staff morale. “Now multiple people can retrieve samples at the same time,” Pereira said. “We can fit a lot more samples in there now. And we actually have room to accommodate more samples as we grow in the future.”</p>
<p>Spacesaver’s nationwide network of local design consultants and service technicians are ready to help out with your project, no matter its size or scope. From free space assessments, to project design and coordination, to product installation and ongoing service long after the sale, our storage experts pride themselves on exemplary customer service.</p>



compact storage walk in fridge pathology lab project

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The Surgical Services Department at Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury, Maryland, upgraded their storage in the operating room core and replaced more than 70 wire carts with seven Spacesaver mobile systems.

Operating room core incorporates compact systems for storing surgical supplies and equipment.

When Every Second Counts: Hospital Operating Room Storage

<p>The Surgical Services Department at Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury, Maryland, upgraded their storage in the operating room core and replaced more than 70 wire carts with seven Spacesaver mobile systems.</p>
<p>“We had been using wire racks to store items and people were having a difficult time working with them,” said Paul McGuire, manager of surgical services. “They had a tendency to tear holes in supplies and they didn’t provide a neat, organized appearance to the storage area.”</p>
<p>McGuire said that the old wire carts were also inefficient on space utilization. There was wasted space between and in front of carts, as well as unutilized space between shelves. It was difficult to store small instruments and when items were stacked high to better utilize shelf space, they were unmanageable.</p>
<p>The local Spacesaver affiliate designed seven mobile systems that were incorporated into the OR core for storing sterile supplies, cases and instruments for surgery. Two systems are located in the main core for supply items, two systems are located between the orthopedics surgery rooms for storing replacement parts and supplies, two service the neurosurgery suite and one unit is in the heart core.</p>
<p>“Finding items quickly is critical. Three to four minutes is an eternity in an OR. If you cannot locate an item, it could have a major impact on a surgery,” McGuire said.</p>
<p>“With the Spacesaver systems, the staff can now easily go in and get what they need, rather than searching the carts,” McGuire said. “In the operating room you are moving very quickly from case to case. You don’t have time to find things and fumble your way through unorganized carts.”</p>

“Finding items quickly is critical. Three to four minutes is an eternity in an OR. If you cannot locate an item, it could have a major impact on a surgery.”

<p>The Surgical Services Department at Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury, Maryland, upgraded their storage in the operating room core and replaced more than 70 wire carts with seven Spacesaver mobile systems.</p>

<h2>Storing Surgical Supplies for Optimal Efficiency</h2>
<p>Seven mobile systems replaced more than 70 carts and saved critical space in the OR core. McGuire says that the space savings has allowed Peninsula Regional to store items in the core rather than in a central sterile supply area. “Now equipment and supplies are readily available and there is no waiting for an item during surgery,” he said.</p>
<p>With millions of dollars of OR supplies and instrumentation, over a million dollars worth of supplies in orthopedics alone, it was also important to medical center staff to store supply items more safely and in a more organized fashion. According to McGuire, the Spacesaver systems have helped to “minimize disorder as well as clutter.”</p>

<h2>Storage Solved</h2>
<p><b>Spacesaver’s in-house planners and engineers collaborated with the project team to create hospital storage solutions that save time, save space, and protect sterility.</b></p>
<p>All of the mobile systems incorporated drawers for small items such as soft goods, syringes, and catheters. Shelf openings were designed to maximize space while still accommodating items like large surgery cases, which are brought up each day for scheduled surgeries.</p>


<p>The mobile system was designed with clear end panels so that items are easily visible and quickly located. Also, on the end of the large central core supply unit, open slanted shelving was incorporated to store sutures.</p>
<p>Peninsula Regional Medical Center also utilizes Spacesaver systems in the in-patient pharmacy and in central sterile supply areas.</p>
<p>“The Spacesaver systems helped us organize, improved the overall appearance of our area and made it extremely effective to do our job,” concluded McGuire. “I believe Spacesaver was the best solution for our OR.”</p>

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Storing Surgical Supplies and Equipment

Faced with rapid growth and increased inventory, a company’s research lab found a more efficient pharmaceutical storage system with mobile shelving.

Finding a Cure for Pharmaceutical Storage at a Research Lab

<p>When you’re creating life-saving vaccines or drugs for diseases like cancer, diabetes, and multiple sclerosis, no supplies can go to waste. The biologic pharmaceutical market is rapidly expanding, and growth has left manufacturers stressed for storage capacity.</p>
<p>One leading pharmaceutical company was dealing with the consequences of their inadequate pharmaceutical storage. The compounds and raw chemicals needed to create biologic drugs must be stored in a temperature-controlled environment to prevent them from deteriorating or becoming inactive. In the past, the company had used vertical carousels, a common storage solution in the industry, to hold chemicals and finished samples, but that was no longer an option.</p>



<h4 class="ssc-white">Did you know?</h4>
<p>6 out of 10 bio manufacturers admit they are facing some type of storage capacity problems at some stage of their manufacturing process.</p>


<h2>Growing Pains Spark Change</h2>
<p>As the company grew, the allocated pharmaceutical storage area filled to capacity, and eventually supplies were stored in various locations around the lab and even in other facilities. Lab technicians had to search different areas of the lab to locate the materials needed for a given project. To make matters worse, upon moving into a new, expanded lab space, they discovered the ceiling height could not accommodate the vertical shelving they’d used previously.</p>
<p>With very specific storage requirements for temperature, humidity, and chemical resistance, the company wasn’t sure where to turn. Adding additional cooler storage would be capital-intensive and would increase ongoing maintenance and operating costs. But to stay competitive, they needed to be poised for even more growth.</p>

<p>Enter the local Spacesaver sales consultant. Having worked on many similar projects, he was an expert in temperature-controlled storage. Due to the complicated nature of the project, he had an in-depth discussion with end-users about their needs and specifications. Together, they came up with a solution that solved all of the issues: a compact mobile storage system with ventilated cabinets. From his experience, he knew that denser storage would help stabilize the room temperature, making the cooler more energy-efficient and saving on electricity costs. The cabinets could also be moved and compressed, which increased the capacity of the limited space.</p>
<p>Simple lab shelving wasn’t good enough for the lab’s requirements. “They needed the storage to be a bit more air tight—less of a shelf and more of a cabinet,” said the Spacesaver consultant. He and the local distributor helped custom-engineer HVAC capabilities needed for the time- and temperature-sensitive products.</p>



<p>Similar companies have also taken note of the engineered-to-order solution. Shortly after the first project, the Spacesaver consultant&nbsp;installed a similar solution for another company with a more conventional pharmaceutical focus. Both companies are consistently placed in the top ten global pharmaceutical corporations.</p>
<p>“Custom projects like these are just one example of why it’s so important to meet with the end-users of the product and brainstorm the solution from that point,” he said. “Once we understand what the requirements are, we can really tailor a system to fit a variety of needs.”</p>



‘A testament to style and function’

Healthcare Storage Projects

Prescriptive Security for Prescription Delivery

Secure Healthcare Lockers at Student Health Center

Compact Cold Storage in a Pathology Lab

Storing Surgical Supplies and Equipment

Finding a Cure for Pharmaceutical Storage at a Research Lab