Figure 2. A simple plan for breakdown, sterilization, and redeployment
Click here to enlarge image3 Hub-and-spoke
The sterilization and resupply area is the clinical hub of your production terminal. Think Federal Express! Make sure this area is centrally located and fully equipped both for sterilization and restocking the entire facility. If you are creating an office with fewer than 10 treatment areas, don't even consider multiple sterilization locations – centralize it! Also, don?t waste money on a pre-fabricated "sterilization center." These centers are too compact for most offices that do not employ a full-time sterilization assistant, and do not provide a good cost-to-benefit ratio.
While there is no magic to creating an optimal design, the details of your sterilization area are crucial. Frequently, doctors are sold sterilizing equipment that is faster and supposedly more efficient. The concept of rate-limiting steps has rarely been studied in dentistry. Simply stated, any given process will flow no more quickly than its slowest step will allow.
In a busy office that is properly staffed for efficiency, the rate-limiting step in sterilization is how often a clinical staff member is able to move the sterilization technology cycle along, not how fast each individual piece of equipment functions. Therefore, the fastest equipment is rarely quicker in achieving its actual objective of returning instruments back to treatment than a well-organized, high-flow stericenter. While we certainly are not advocating slow equipment, a proper layout, ease of use, and durability should be your primary keys to stericenter purchasing decisions. (Bottom left, Figure 2.)
4 Inventory is easy
Centralize all of your storage – not just your bulk purchases. Consolidate your active storage for rapid room resupply as well. This aspect of your design should not be an afterthought. We see far too many offices that are burdened with tens of thousands of dollars in supplies that are scattered throughout the office! This makes purchasing control and stock rotation impossible. It also inhibits the adoption of new generations of products, and allows product outdates to occur.