The brief:
With over 350,000 files stored in boxes offsite it was causing a huge amount of problems for staff and services for Salisbury Hospital. The cost to store boxes off site was proving to be an ongoing expense, further problems with offsite storage included, retrieval times – files would be required day or night and would have to be retrieved when required and even more critically off site storage resulted in losing files. The hospital had a large but very awkwardly shaped dark unused area that they planned to refurbish for the storage of over 8000 linear metres of files.
The solution:
Rackline were invited to help the hospital prepare plans and costing for approval (via a tender process). The Rackline team using the size of file space planned the room, because of the unusual size of the room and low ceilings it was re-planned several times in order to achieve the required capacity. Rackline provided 1130 bays of Profile/ Multitrak mobile shelving with all files stored on shelves (not in boxes) with two full height dividers per shelf recommended to allow the easy retrieval of files, in total Rackline stored over 450,000 files. Rackline also used their light reflective powder coated paint finish to make the previously dark area a more aesthetic area for staff to use. The hospital now has their files stored on site with 24 hour access reduced loss of files and less than a 3 year payback (including all builders work on site).
“Thanks to the space planning design that Rackline provided we now have an extremely functional filing system that can be accessed at any time, eliminates lost files and after three years will offer considerable savings.” – Sandy Higdon, Medical Records Manager
