Medication Carts for Nursing Homes

Nursing homes are vital components of our communities. They provide essential physical care to their residents to keep them healthy while also providing emotional care. To ensure your staff has the tools required to provide this high-level care, equip them with medical workstations that meet their workflow needs.

This article explores the must-haves for medical workstations in nursing homes, so you can enhance your staff’s and facility’s performance.

Stability and Mobility

Unlike other medical facilities, residential nursing homes are more than a place to receive care. They’re home to the residents. So it’s normal for residents to move about their rooms and other parts of the facility. To be able to handle this and be able to provide care and medications to residents no matter where they are, implementing medical bedside carts that provide stability and mobility is imperative.

Your facility’s med carts should be constructed with durable materials that can withstand constant, rigorous use. The design and materials should be capable of handling the demands of the nursing home environment without falling apart or causing issues for nurses.

In addition to stability, medical workstations must be built with mobility in mind. Staff can traverse the entire nursing home over the course of their shift as they provide care to residents. They need a cart built to travel with them.

Any workstation on wheels that come into your nursing home needs sturdy casters made to navigate changes in flooring materials and can handle tight turns. The workstation also needs to be designed for effortless pushing and pulling of the cart so nurses don’t strain their bodies while helping their residents.

The ideal medical workstation for nursing homes is light yet durable, stable yet mobile. Choosing carts with these qualities empowers the nurse to bring their workstation everywhere they go with ease. When you provide mobile workstations that tick all these boxes, your staff has the tools they need to do their jobs to the best of their abilities.

Organization

Nursing home staff is in charge of caring for patients with varying needs. From the outside, nursing homes might appear to be a slow-paced environment, but those who work in the work know the list of tasks is never-ending.

To maintain the best care for the residents, your staff must stay organized even as they travel room to room. The right medical workstations are designed with busy, multi-tasking staff in mind. Medical workstations for nursing homes offer features for ample storage and organization options. From bins and dividers to locking drawers, the workstations need to cover any need a nurse may have. Having a workstation with these options allows staff to complete their work more accurately and efficiently than before.

A well-organized staff, when equipped with the tools they need to do their jobs, experience higher levels of workplace satisfaction. These factors not only influence their ability to care for residents but also impact staff morale. The more satisfied nurses and staff are, the better experience they’re able to offer their residents.

By providing medical workstations designed with nursing home staff’s needs in mind, you give them the tools they need to thrive, leading to better outcomes for everyone.

Safe Medication Management

As with any medical facility, nursing homes serve residents with various needs, including different medications. Staff is responsible for dispensing patient medications safely, accurately, and on time. By providing them with the proper computer workstations and dispensing carts, they are empowered to administer medication to their residents safely.

Medication management within a nursing home is critical for both patient safety and clinical liability. Medication-related errors are the 3rd leading cause of death in the United States, making every step of the process important. From preparation to orders to dispensing to administration, every step must be carefully executed to ensure the right patient receives the right medications at the right time. Nursing home staff must stay organized to ensure safe medication management. This can be fostered with medication delivery carts.

Medicine carts with locked storage drawers offer added layers of safety to give nurses the confidence the medication they’re bringing with them stays secure. The locking drawers can only be accessed with a code, and when the drawer has been open for too long a silent yet visible alarm goes off to alert the nurse. This ensures that only designated staff members can access the medications.

Medication carts for nursing homes keep other residents safe and your facility performing at the highest standards of care.

Cleanability and Antimicrobials

An essential component of your nursing home’s medical workstations is their cleanability. Due to the close proximity of patients within a nursing home, plus the fragile nature of many nursing home patients’ health, facilities need medical equipment that is easy to clean.

A recent analysis of nursing home data found that 40% of surveyed nursing homes had infection prevention and control deficiencies. This includes properly cleaning surfaces and mixing contaminated equipment with clean equipment. Unfortunately, these numbers could have been dramatically decreased with the proper workstations.

Medication workstations should be free of deep divots or cracks where dirt or other materials can build up. Smooth surfaces make cleaning easier for staff, and they’ll be able to sanitize their stations quickly and more effectively.

Before choosing a medication cart for nursing homes, facility administrators should look for equipment that is easy to clean. But infection prevention doesn’t start and stop with cleanliness. Innovative medical workstation manufacturers implement antimicrobial materials in their products.

At Altus, we add antimicrobial technologies at the point of manufacturing. When antimicrobials exist in the makeup of workstations, nursing homes are able to reduce the spread of bacteria (and infections), preserve resources, and improve patient outcomes.

Medical Workstations Designed with Your Nursing Home in Mind

At Altus, we design medication carts for nursing homes in mind. Our team knows the unique needs and requirements nursing homes face, and we design our workstations to help their workflows.

Contact us today to learn more about how our medical workstations can help improve the workflows in your nursing home and provide nurses with the equipment they need.