Ideas That Work: Simple Sign Tags Fluid Carts as Ready to Roll

A one-word sign on a fleet of fluid waste management carts lets your OR team know which devices have been emptied and cleaned and which ones haven’t. After we transitioned to a new fleet of carts last year, our patient care technicians were assigned the task of emptying and cleaning the machines. To alert the OR staff to the status of each device, the techs came up with a simple-yet-effective solution: They hang a “Clean” sign on a cart’s pole to let everyone know the unit is ready to use. If the sign isn’t on the pole, staff know the cart is temporarily out of commission until it’s been emptied and cleaned.

Caryn Solomon, MA, BSN, RN
Westchester Medical Center Health Network
Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
[email protected]