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7 Key Considerations When Assembling Hospital Wire Shelving Systems

By Cindy Juhas | June 10, 2014

When you are preparing to undergo a major, or even minor, capital equipment installation/setup such as wire shelving, it might be tempting to take the DIY (Do It Yourself) approach to save money. However, DIY is often not always the fastest or the safest solution.

Time is money and you have to ask yourself how long it will take to put everything together.  Here are the considerations involved when undergoing a capital equipment installation/setup on your own.

Types of Wire Shelving

Pre-configured shelves are the easiest to work with as well as to install however, these may not fit in the space allotted.  There are stationary units which are designed for use in a more permanent area such as main storage rooms or department storage areas.  These are not re-configurable and are only advisable if you know this will remain a storage space for some time to come.  

Stationary units are best left for professional capital equipment installation/setup companies. Mobile units are designed for items such as linens, which will be moved throughout a unit to change hospital beds and are also sometimes used in storage rooms as they come with lockable wheels. Customized units are usually part of a professional capital equipment installation/setup.  

The type most likely to provide the "opportunity" for a DIY job would be built to order designs which are configured using a plan that suits your needs from a selection from an existing catalog.  They are "semi" customized as you can order the configuration that best suits your needs but will not be an exact measure in most cases.

Timing for Build to Order Wire Shelving

As mentioned above, the size of the storage system will be the main factor in how long it will take you to install your own system.  Here are some steps you will want to consider when assessing how long it will take a staff member(s) to install the wire shelving instead of opting for a professional capital equipment installation/setup team:

1. Organization: The parts will have to be unpacked and laid out to ensure you have all of the pieces.  They will have to be organized between posts and shelves and/or baskets before work can commence.

2. Shelves/Baskets: Shelves and/or baskets will come in varying sizes.  They will have to match them up to the plans in order to place them in the right configuration.

3. Posts: There will be a number of posts that will have to be built to create the supports for the shelving unit.  This in itself will be extremely time consuming and you have to trust that the person(s) putting the unit together will ensure each post is secured to avoid collapse.

4. Supports: There will then be a support that will be affixed to the posts.  These supports will be what the shelves or baskets sit on.  They will have to adjust each support to meet the needs of the configuration.

5. Assembly Tools: Gathering the tools needed to assemble the shelving units may take a while.  Most clinics and doctor’s offices may have some manual tools available for hanging pictures and doing other minor adjustments or repairs.  Not as many are likely to have power tools and other specialty items available which may be needed for this kind of job.

6. Final Assembly: Once everything is sorted they will then have to contend with the final assembly for this particular capital equipment installation/setup project and then put away all of the stock.

7. Interruptions: These steps do not include interruptions such as trying to find tools, looking for assistance for lifting some items and staff requiring assistance from the person doing the installation.

As you can see, even handy office staff will likely take half again or twice as long to assemble and install even simple wire shelving, as compared to people who are used to doing it and have the proper equipment immediately at hand to accomplish the job in a timely fashion.  So, unless your office staff are earning less than half of what professional installers would be earning, no matter how much time it may take to put together that wire shelving system, it's probably better to have actual installers do it.

CME Corp has a dedicated staff that will receive all shelving parts and assemble shelving before placing in your facility.  This will save you time and money, while leaving your staff to perform other duties.  


About CME: CME Corp is the nation’s premier source for healthcare equipment, turnkey logistics, and biomedical services, representing 2 million+ products from more than 2,000 manufacturers.

With two corporate offices and 35+ service centers, our mission is to help healthcare facilities nationwide reduce the cost of the equipment they purchase, make their equipment specification, delivery, installation, and maintenance processes more efficient, and help them seamlessly launch, renovate and expand on schedule.

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