Waterloo Isolation Carts For PPE Storage

Isolation carts are essential equipment used to stage critically needed personal protective equipment outside of patient's rooms that have been deemed an “infection risk”. These carts are typically colored yellow for rapid identification as an “isolation cart”. They are also frequently configured with large and deep drawers, as they house bulky personal protective supplies and medical equipment for easy transport.

When a patient contracts an infection that can be passed to others via direct, indirect, airborne, droplet, or other means of transmission, they need to be isolated. The primary way to prevent the spread of infection is to isolate the patient in their room and provide personal protective supplies just outside their room for clinicians, staff, and visitors to wear when entering the room to treat or visit the infected patient. Carts are ideal workstations for storing products, medication, and protective supplies. When clinicians and visitors leave isolation rooms, they need a place to dispose of their personal protective equipment. As a result, isolation carts are often outfitted with large waste baskets for the disposal of their gowns, bonnets, face shields, and other medical items.

Isolation Cart Cabinet Storage

Common isolation cart supplies include bonnets, gowns, face shields, masks, gloves, shoe covers, medication, hand sanitizer, and even respirators. Due to the bulk and size of these supplies, along with the frequency with which they are used throughout the day, the storage drawers on an isolation cart need to be large and deep. Additionally, it is common to mount medical glove boxes to the exterior of the cart for quick access. Another common accessory of these carts is a waste-basket for the disposal of used personal protective equipment after a clinician or visitor leaves the patient's isolation room. Hand sanitizer can also be stored on the cart top as a way to quickly disinfect any visitor's hands after leaving the patient’s room.

Managing an isolation cart fleet typically starts in the hospital’s central supply department. A series of isolation carts will be stocked, staged, and ready to deploy when needed. A fleet of isolation carts can be upwards of 20+ carts for medium to large size hospitals. When required, these carts are deployed and positioned just outside a patient’s room for use by clinicians and visitors. It is necessary to check inventory on deployed carts several times throughout the day since supplies can deplete quickly as a patient is seen by staff and others. It is not uncommon to have to cycle a fresh isolation cart to a patient's room multiple times a day. That's why it’s good to have a series of pre-stocked isolation carts ready to roll in central supply, that can be pulled out at a moment's notice if an emergency occurs.

Store More in Your Isolation Carts with Our Extra-High and Extra-Wide Options

Waterloo offers steel and aluminum isolation carts in four different cart heights and two different cart widths. This gives us the opportunity to match the cart with the supply storage need and provide the optimal storage solution. Our full-size standard Uni-Cart is 29” wide and ranges from 36” to 45” tall. This cart is perfect for most isolation cart applications. It can easily transport any item and has ideal workstation dimensions. When space is restricted, our Med-Jr (narrow) cart is only 23” wide and ranges from 36” to 45” tall. In either case (standard Uni-Cart or Med-Jr), our carts offer between 21” and 30” of configurable drawer storage space for medical supplies and products. Our tallest carts offer 30” of configurable drawer storage space and would allow for five 6” tall drawers that could store both personal protective equipment and any necessary medical supplies. Configurable drawer storage space is the amount of available drawer space within a cart that can be used for storage. Our drawers come in 3”, 6”, 9” and 12” tall sizes. Select any combination of these drawers that equals the configurable drawer space of your preferred Waterloo cart and you are ready to go! For example, a cart with 27” of configurable drawer space can accommodate two 3”H, two 6”H and one 9”H tall drawers as they equal a total of 27” of drawer space to be filled with any products you'll need on hand in a medical situation or emergency.

Several locking options are available on Waterloo Healthcare isolation carts, for when you need to store medication and other high-value items. From a simple key lock to an advanced electronic proximity badge reader lock, Waterloo Healthcare has you covered when you need to have your carts locked. If you wish to avoid keys, but still want to be able to lock your cart, Waterloo Healthcare offers a mechanical push button lock that doesn’t require batteries and gives your staff the keyless option they are looking for!

Waterloo healthcare offers a wide variety of carts of various sizes sizes, shelving, drawer, and cabinet configurations, lock and key options, and isolation cart accessories that ensure we have a solution for every facility’s isolation cart needs!

View our isolation cart options below. We also have a wide range of anesthesia carts and other emergency mobile workstations available at different price points.