Organizing Emergency Crash Carts for Patient Safety

By Spencer Fullerton

With the medical world surrounded by processes to reduce medication errors and improve patient safety wouldn’t you think that the organization of crash cart supplies would be important? Without question it is important, and for good reason-- many organizations are working to standardize crash cart setups so that no matter where you are working the medications and supplies can be found in the same proximity and that one can be confident in choosing the correct medication or supply.

How does one approach this task? Luckily, at Health Care Logistics we provide a wide range of options that meet the needs of many, regardless of facility size or specialty. The decision has to be made from the start how the replenishment process will be managed, such as whether or not to do a complete cart exchange or exchange out trays. If no trays will be utilized how will drawers be organized to make items accessible and ensure the correct item is selected during that crucial moment?

Health Care Logistics provides a range of drawer dividers and systems such as our Clips & Strips that allow drawers to be divided into compartments to meet your needs. To take it a step further and simplify the replenishment process and standardize organization, crash cart boxes (trays) can used. Trays are available in various sizes and with a variety of options for many types of emergency crash carts. When using boxes, an exchange system can be utilized where the cart can remain in the area of need and just the opened boxes are exchanged with unused boxes. This will save some serious time since the cart doesn’t have to be wheeled back to pharmacy or central supply and inventoried from top to bottom.

Options such as clear or amber lids and crash cart bags help simplify the process more and maintain the security of contents. Use lid options and secure with security seals that can easily be broken to gain access to the box or use a bag where the filled box is inserted and sealed. Bags offer perforations where the user tears open the bag to gain access to box or tray items. Both lids and bags are great options because it’s clearly evident when contents have been accessed. When using lids you can take it a step further by sealing a used box with a different color seal so you know it needs exchanged or replenished and that the box is no longer safe to use.

Boxes (trays) can also be neatly organized with dividers or custom cut foam. Dividers organize boxes into multiple pre-defined compartments which allows medications and supplies to be segregated from one another and quick and easy to retrieve. Custom cut foam with labeled overlays is a unique opportunity to take error prevention to another level. Foam is customized with cutouts to hold individual vials, ampules, vials, syringes, laryngoscopes, blades, airways, and much more. With foam, each item can have its own spot and the printed overlay identifies the name of the item. This helps eliminate errors during replenishment and use. Verification can now occur where the correct item is being loaded into the correct location and the label can be read on the tray and item to make sure the correct item is being selected during an emergency. Overlays can also be left blank so that labels of the facility’s choice can be printed and applied. Barcode labels can be applied to allow for scanning checks when restocking to be sure of correct placement. Health Care Logistics provides simple and affordable software that allows printing of these barcode labels, check out our WaspLabeler db Tracker. 

As you can see, many options exist to help prevent medication errors associated with emergency cart use and help make facilities more efficient and standardized. Without a doubt the organization of emergency crash carts is important to the operation and safety of a facility.