Healthcare facilities have come to rely extensively on mobile medical carts. Fortunately, hospitals and clinics have many options to choose from when searching for medical carts for sale.
Hundreds of types and sizes exist, including many different accessory options to choose from to customize it and fit each ward’s or section’s needs.
Here are several basic options for review, along with some of the ways to customize each.
General Construction
Materials
Manufacturers give a lot of attention to the materials used to construct mobile medical carts. Sixty or seventy years ago, most hospitals had wooden carts. Keeping wooden carts clean and sanitary took a lot of work.
Today, virtually all carts are made from stainless steel or types of polymers. These materials resist germs, and workers can clean and sanitize them quickly.
Casters
Design teams spend a lot of time developing and adding quality casters to carts for healthcare. The number of ball bearings and functional braking mechanisms helps nurses, and other staff maneuver the carts through narrow corridors, into storage areas, and on elevators.
Many mobile carts have features like skirts to help keep carts clean. Skirts on the wheels minimize attracting pieces of gauze, cotton, or other materials found in clinic environments.
Ergonomics
Today’s cart engineers put a lot of effort into making the carts ergonomically sound.
Healthcare workers spend a lot of his or her shift maneuvering carts and working with equipment on the carts. Expandable arms, height adjustments, and the size and location of peripherals affect the chances of repetitive injuries or back problems.
Computers
When someone mentions mobile medical carts, he or she almost always is referring to a cart with computers.
Ever since the EHR or Electronic Health Records requirement came into effect a few years ago, any hospital that did not use electronic records now does so.
Carts play a significant role in helping a facility meet their responsibilities regarding healthcare records.
Bringing a computer to the patient rather than using workstations somewhere in the clinic improves quality of care.
Nurses and doctors can now enter the results of diagnostic tests into a patient’s record immediately.
The error rate drops significantly since staff no longer use notes or memory to record important patient information eventually.
Medical Devices
Clinics also use mobile medical carts to transport medical equipment directly to the patient rather than moving the patient to the device.
Carts transport pumps, defibrillators, vital sign equipment, and more bedside.
This usage created a need for portable power sources.
Batteries
Adding computers to mobile medical carts necessarily required some means of powering PCs or laptops.
Batteries and batteries packs now come as desirable options for healthcare facilities.
The old style NiCad batteries have been replaced by modern lithium ion power sources. Companies can make lithium ion batteries smaller, lighter, and longer lasting.
The demand for power sources is so high that many companies have developed proprietary battery systems made for hospital environments.
Customization
Virtually all mobile cart manufacturers offer cart customization.
Most facilities have multiple needs. A hospital might need carts for the emergency room, carts for pediatrics, carts to deliver medicines, or something else.
Customization allows users to work with companies and increase or decrease the number of drawers, cabinets, size of the workspace, power packs, and add useful peripherals.
Accessories
Many accessories are available for mobile cart use. Clinics often add IV poles, chart holders, integrated monitors, keyboards and mouse, or locks on drawers.
Hospitals can add barcodes to cabinets and drawers, RFID systems, and much more.
Final Word
Clinics that want to upgrade the existing fleet of mobile carts can contact Scott-Clark Medical by calling 512-598-5466. One of our knowledgeable staff can assist you in determining what options will work best in the hospital or clinic layout.