What Utility Cart is Best for Your Healthcare Facility?
When trying to determine which utility cart is best for your healthcare facility, there are a few simple guidelines that can help make the decision easier. At clinics, hospitals, and other medical facilities, it’s important to determine the “W’s” that will lead you to the right choice, so let’s walk through those basics now and then we’ll provide you with a great tool to help you select the best utility cart for your healthcare facility.
WHAT WILL YOU TRANSPORT?
This is the most basic and most obvious question you’ll need to answer. What are you moving from one place to another, and how much do the items you’re transporting weigh? The reality is this will impact your utility cart choice in two distinct and important ways. First, the more weight you’ll move, the heavier duty a cart will need to be. Our carts are built with different levels of durability so that they can withstand different levels of usage. Moving 500 pounds of equipment and supplies on a cart designed to transport 250 pounds can be a major safety hazard, and your cart will not last. Second, the shape of the items you’re planning to move will impact the shelving requirements on the cart.
WHERE WILL YOU TRANSPORT IT?
Casters will play a key role in a utility cart’s capabilities. The main question to ask is: “what types of surfaces will my utility cart travel on” in your healthcare facility. If the answer is smooth and even inside surfaces, like hallways or patient rooms, the caster requirements will be different compared to uneven surfaces you may encounter if you intend to use a cart for transport across your facility. In that case, your cart will go over various types of floor surfaces, some smooth and some that are rough and uneven and may cause more movement to a cart.
WHEN WILL THE CART BE USED?
This is a question operators may not think about. The fact is when utility carts are designed and manufactured here at Lakeside, we create carts designed for varying levels of usage. Incurring the expense of a cart designed to be used 20 hours per day isn’t cost-effective for an operation that only needs to use the cart during a single, 12 hour shift. Likewise, a cart designed for minimal usage will not cut it for higher-demand operations. How long you plan to use the cart each day plays a big role.
So which cart is right for you?
Answering that question correctly includes cross-referencing the items above to hit an option that fits your best overall needs and challenges. Lakeside has a full range of utility cart offerings. To help you find the cart that is just right, we have put together a comprehensive utility cart load capacity calculator that walks you though step by step to find the right load capacity you need. Once you know your load capacity, this process is narrowed down even more. Click the button below to take our Utility Cart Load Capacity Calculator.
