stainless steel surgical cabinets

When compared to alternatives, stainless steel medical cabinets deliver the best protection against bacteria that can live on equipment surfaces. It’s one reason why hospitals, urgent care centers, and surgical suites aim to incorporate the design into their facility space. With so many stainless steel cabinetry options out on the market, choosing the right one to address your hospital, medical, operating room, and surgical storage needs isn’t easy. To help simplify the selection process, we put together this guide to stainless steel medical cabinets. It examines the available options and why each are used. Plus, we provide examples of places you most often find these cabinets and highlight the advantages for use.

What are Stainless Steel Medical Cabinets?

Stainless steel medical cabinets provide an easy-to-sterilize, eco-friendly storage solution that can adapt to your changing needs. Systems allow simple installation and can accommodate relocation during a facility expansion, renovation, or move. Other terms to describe these solutions range from operating room storage and surgical cabinets to a hospital storage cabinet.

Why is stainless steel used for medical equipment?

operating room storage cabinets

Along with providing better infection control, stainless steel remains more durable and versatile in design. These qualities add to the many reasons why it’s so widely used to construct medical equipment. The attraction doesn’t end there, however. Medical-field professionals also prefer the rustproof material because it does not stain and can tolerate repeated cleaning with harsh chemicals to maximize reuse. Additionally, non-magnetic stainless steel can stand up to corrosion and heat better. It’s quite diverse as well and can help commercial healthcare applications improve workflow while reducing raw materials costs.

Where are stainless steel medical cabinets used?

surgical instrument storage cabinets

Stainless steel cabinetry remains popular with healthcare applications that emphasize cleanliness, sound formability, manufacturing precision, reliability, strength and more. Some common areas to find these solutions include:

  • Catheterization labs
  • Endoscopy and radiology departments
  • Sterile processing departments
  • Surgical suites
  • Surgical supply, instrument, and device storage areas
  • Laboratories
  • Veterinarian clinics

Different types of stainless steel medical cabinets

This guide to stainless steel medical cabinets highlights many configurations to suit your application needs, including:

Freestanding cabinets with glass doors and sloped tops

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A freestanding hospital storage cabinet with glass doors, sloped tops, and adjustable shelves provides flexible storage that promotes cleanliness and visibility. With a clear view of the contents, staff can verify items without handling a thing. So everything remains protected from possible contamination and ready to use in a crisis. When checking inventory, personnel can also easily recognize dates through the glass doors. Then, open them using a wire pull handle to retrieve anything nearing expiration and avoid wasting it. Facilities, in turn, keep material rotating and get the most from their investment while delivering safe and efficient patient care.

Since configurations have the strength to stand alone, you can place them against a wall to save space or in the middle of the floor. Choosing to do the latter would allow you to optimize your existing footprint while creating a cozier, more inviting space. Personnel can roam through the area without feeling congested and facilities avoid wasting premium space.

The flexibility you have to maximize the available space carries through to the interior since these freestanding casework units have adjustable shelves. With a simple shelf modification, you can customize the space to ensure maximum footprint efficiency. Coupled with a durable stainless finish, systems are ideal to use in sanitary and heavy-duty applications such as:

Recessed cabinets with pass-thru glass front and solid doors in the back

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Find recessed cabinets with pass-thru glass front and solid doors in the back online

Recessed cabinets with pass-thru glass front and solid doors in the back mount to the wall to save floor space and have a built-in flush finish that provides clean, pleasing aesthetics. Configurations also include wall trim to help conceal gaps along the sides and top and add a more decorative, personalized touch to your veterinary clinic or cleanroom. If you want to ensure the safety of your stored materials, you have the option to add theft protection locks, too. However, pass-thru cabinets provide storage access from in and outside the operating room to simplify supply restocking without violating sterile areas.

Recessed cabinets have adjustable shelves that you adapt to maximize space and sterilize with the harshest cleaning solutions to prevent bacteria growth. Their tempered safety glass doors provide visibility and resist scratches so storage maintains a clean look while ensuring safe, error-free material handling and retrieval.

Some models have piano-type hinged doors that withstand wear and tear while remaining easy to install and align, helping ensure smooth and safe operation. Others use hinges that allow doors to open a full 270 degrees to ensure ergonomic access. They include a self-closing feature that activates at less than 5 degrees from an open position to keep the door shut and ensure personnel always has sterile storage to use. The same units also fit sliding doors as an alternative which can provide convenient space savings and a clean look without sacrificing your accessibility to sterile items.

Drawer cabinets with a lighted workspace

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Drawer cabinets with a lighted workspace and magnetic bulletin boards provide a convenient workstation that you can use to remain productive in the operating room. With built-in overhead lighting, they allow specialized use in procedure areas that have low electronic leakage which does not interfere with other electronic systems. The light fixture illuminates the desktop underneath so surgeons working on laptops can see to update patient pre- and post-operation progress, plus review health history. A magnetic bulletin board contains six magnets with the strength to secure notes, so the workspace can remain clean and organized during emergency surgery.

Rather than shelves, configurations incorporate easy-to-sterilize drawers that glide on ball-bearing slides to ensure smooth use. To ensure the sterilization process remains simple but effective, the drawers’ handles have a solid stainless open design. You have the option to add locks if concerned about material theft and tampering prevention. Systems allow modular assembly and include anchoring holes and connectors to ensure proper alignment when installing more than one. Wall surface or recessed-style mounting models are available to help maximize your floor space.

Mobile cabinets with glass doors

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Mobile cabinets with glass doors combine visibility and flexible relocation into one solution to simplify saving space and ensure safer, more efficient material handling. Units have non-marking rubber casters that provide a greater grip, better traction, and a softer ride over rough surfaces. With good wear and abrasion resistance, the wheels won’t damage hospital floors as you move shared supplies from one area to another.

Along with providing efficient visibility, the mobile cabinets’ glass doors allow lock integration to help regulate access and maintain sterile storage conditions. Interior adjustable shelves can accommodate changes in height to maximize space use and prevent material damage. Thus, you avoid wasting valuable storage while creating clearance to protect consolidated materials during space-saving relocation. Systems’ doors utilize self-lubricating stainless piano-style hinges tested to last up to 750,000 cycles and provide noise-free use.

Benefits to different-style stainless steel cabinets

To conclude this guide to stainless steel medical cabinets, this section explains the benefits of using the different styles available.

Freestanding vs. Recessed

hospital storage cabinet

Freestanding hospital storage cabinets stand alone in the middle of the floor or against the wall to save space. Placing units in the middle of the floor gives you an instant divider to help optimize your existing footprint while allowing areas to remain open and welcoming. You always have the flexibility to reposition the cabinets since they aren’t fixed to the floor or wall, simplifying space redesign.

Recessed stainless surgical cabinets allow clean installation into the wall to provide space-saving storage with a built-in flush finish look that enhances aesthetics. The cabinets also integrate well into spaces with contemporary and traditional design schemes.

Pass-Thru vs. Non-Pass-Thru

surgical cabinets

Pass-thru operating room storage cabinets mount into the wall to save space while remaining accessible from both sides to simplify restocking and maintain cleanliness within sterile areas. They often utilize hinged-type glass doors and are great for storing things like catheters and sterile scopes.

Non-pass through surgical cabinets can also provide you with the same benefits, except restocking happens after procedures finish.

Flexibility of mobile

stainless steel medical cabinet

A stainless steel medical cabinet with mobile flexibility allows you to efficiently relocate supplies to wherever needed and save space. Often, they have swivel casters that allow maneuverability to simplify steering the carts around tight corners. You can quickly change direction in an emergency since the wheels rotate 360-degrees. 

Contact Us for Stainless Steel Medical Cabinets

Southwest Solutions Group® provides stainless steel medical cabinets to hospitals and facilities beyond the ones in this guide. We will also provide you with a free consultation to determine your exact needs and specifications before the design process begins. For more information or to speak with a healthcare specialist, call us at 1-800-803-1083 or send us a message.