Enhancing productivity with modular storage cabinets

Several years before the advent of Medicare's prospective payment system and DRGs, which have caused many other hospitals to focus attention on cost reduction and central inventory control for the first time, St. Mary's had adopted central material management techniques. In recognizing that the cost of overhead materials cannot be passed along to the patients, the hospital took steps to keep these costs under control. Modular storage drawer cabinets are being used at the medical center to implement established policies because they proved to be more efficient than other material storage systems, including tote boxes, open shelving and wire-tray carts. As a capital equipment expenditure, the return-on-investment for these cabinets can be justified in terms of space savings estimated at 50% in the case of CSS. The flexibility, modularity and space efficiency of modular storage drawer cabinets meet St. Mary's desire to save time, energy and money.