Do endoscopes hang on the back of doors side-by-side with spare scrub-tops? Do stethoscopes get draped over drawer handles? Do boxes of rarely-used antibiotics gather dust at the backs of cupboards or shelves, until they’re needed urgently: only for someone to find they went out of date three days ago? Or do you have a well-organised storage system with ‘a place for everything, and everything in its place’ to quote the proverb?
Choosing the ideal storage system may not seem very exciting when compared to selecting the latest piece of must-have surgical instrumentation, but it can work wonders on how effectively a veterinary practice is run.
Gratnells has decades of experience in manufacturing attractive, space-efficient and effective storage solutions, and since November 2012, they have been bringing their storage expertise into veterinary practices large, small and everything in between. With a range of storage trolleys and storage units to suit every type of building, as well as interchangeable storage trays of different depths, all your storage needs can be accommodated in an easy to keep clean (and to clean behind!) set-up, in which whatever you need can be close at hand, whenever you need it.
Having the means to tidy, efficient storage is just the beginning
Gratnells want to establish a ‘Gold Standard’ for veterinary storage, and that’s where this blog and its readers can really come into force. The blog is intended for readers to share stories, tips and advice on what works (and what hasn’t worked in the past) for their practices. Through the combined knowledge of veterinary practitioners and veterinary nurses all over the UK, we can establish best practice for storing all the different types of veterinary equipment and consumables: whereas currently guidelines exist only for the safe storage of drugs, oxygen cylinders and laboratory samples, and for the correct disposal of sharps and clinical waste.
Share your knowledge of storing veterinary supplies
Whether you work in a brand-new, purpose-built veterinary hospital, or an adapted 400-year-old shop or house, and no matter how many people work in your practice team, we want to hear from you. Tell us the best ways you’ve found to set up an effectively laid-out ops trolley in order to cut down on surgery time: allowing your patients to wake up and go home sooner; the ideal layout of your bandaging trays within a portable storage unit that can be wheeled to the patient; or even how you make sure that the stock that’s likely to go out of date first gets used first. Does thinking ahead, for instance by putting out the kits for the next day’s procedures the night before, make for a less stressed and more harmonious practice team? Let us know.
Send your stories to [email protected] and help make this blog, as well as the forthcoming ebook (to be based on real-life examples of veterinary practices), into a Gold Standard on veterinary storage solutions.