Anyone in the medical industry is surely aware of the difficulties involved in keeping everything organized.

There’s mountains of paperwork (yes, paperwork—many federal and state regulations require medical records to be kept physically as well as digitally), there’s a seemingly endless array of supplies and pharmaceuticals to keep track of, and it can all start to build up after a while.

And while every different medical practice—physician’s office, dentist’s office, urgent care, etc—is going to have its own storage trials and tribulations, there’s a few tips that can help keep nearly any medical practice more organized (and up to code) in its day-to-day operations. Here’s a few areas in medical practices that may need the most organizational help, and what you can do to keep them tidy:

Sterile medical supplies: The most obvious one, no matter what your practice specializes in, is the need to safely store sterile medical supplies. These include any supplies or equipment that requires germ-free storage, safe from prying human hands and any potential risk of contamination. The easiest way to store these products is to find a shelving or storage material that can provide germ-resistance, such as NSF-approved medical shelving or NSF plastic utility shelving that prevents and reduces the risk of contamination. Making sure the shelves themselves are germ-free is a quick way to make sure your equipment stays safe and your storage procedures are correctly followed.

Patient records: As mentioned above, many federal and state regulations require patient records to be stored as a printed-out hard copy in addition to whatever computer/digital storage you may be using. These can start to pile up after a while, and alternative storage may be needed. If you have a larger facility (such as a hospital or a multi-floor practice) that has enough available space, mobile aisle shelving could allow you to store more document boxes long term in a more compact area. No matter where you store them, make sure to have a filing system in place—many facilities go by the patient’s last name, but other options include ID number, date of appointment, and more. Find a system that works for your office and stick with it.

Controlled substances: These days, many pharmaceuticals and medical products are under stricter regulation than ever before due to medical abuse and the potential for controlled substances like painkillers to be illegally sold on the black market. In these cases, providing more secure storage like lockers and security shelving can help to cut down on inventory loss or misuse of these products, and larger facilities may want to consider a security partition for an additional layer of security.

Office supplies: Medical practices, from the smallest chiropractic office to the largest regional hospital, need their fair share of office supplies to get things done as well. Make sure each one of your physician offices have enough desk organizers to keep things like pens and clipboards handy (yes, even for your fancier offices that have moved onto tablets), keep everyone’s phone and laptop chargers close at hand, and stop things from getting too cluttered. It also helps to have an open order with somewhere like Staples to replenish any needed paper or writing utensils as needed.