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<\/p>\nScrub stations are the least expensive equipment in an operating room suite and the most implicated in its daily rhythm. Positioned well, they absorb the scrub-in flow without colliding with patient transport; positioned badly, they create the doorway congestion that every OR nurse can describe from memory. Scrub station planning is therefore flow planning, and it belongs in the OR design phase alongside table and lighting decisions, not as a late fixture choice. This guide covers placement logic, how many stations a suite needs, the water and drainage services they demand, and the specification details that matter once the count is set.<\/p>\n
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Scrub stations sit in the semi-restricted zone, past the operating room entry, where scrubbed staff can wash, gown and walk to the table without crossing the sterile field or re-contaminating on the way. The placement decisions follow from that position. Distance to each OR door matters: scrubbing happens just outside or just inside the room, and a station serving multiple rooms should sit where two or three doors converge without forcing scrubbed staff past traffic. Direction of travel matters equally: the walk from station to table should not cross the path that dirty instruments and used linens take out of the room, an overlay of clean and dirty flows that OR layout planning treats as fundamental, alongside the patient flow patterns described in our OR patient flow guide<\/a>. visibility between the station and the room keeps the circulating nurse and scrubbed team coordinated during gowning.<\/p>\n Station counts follow the surgical schedule rather than a fixed ratio. The planning convention is that scrubbing should never delay the start of a case: with a scrub-in of several minutes per person, a room running sequential cases with a full surgical team needs enough parallel stations that the second case’s team scrubs while the first field is still turned over. Single-theater day surgery centers manage with one or two well-placed stations; multi-room suites serving simultaneous cases need stations at each room plus shared capacity between adjacent rooms. Renovation projects add a constraint: existing plumbing walls determine where stations can go economically, which is why the scrub count conversation belongs in the same early phase as the structural questions covered in our OR renovation checklist<\/a>.<\/p>\n Scrub stations are plumbing fixtures wearing medical clothing, and their services drive installation cost. Water supply needs temperature mixing and, in many facilities, treatment appropriate to the surgical hand-wash protocol in use, since water quality is part of the hand hygiene chain documented in international infection control guidance from bodies such as the World Health Organization<\/a>. Drainage needs gradient and trap access behind the wall. Sensor-activated or knee-operated controls avoid recontamination on the tap, and the wall behind the station takes splash protection that survives daily disinfection. Height and reach dimensions should accommodate the scrub sink posture, hands above elbows, without forcing staff to stoop or reach, and the accessory shelf for brushes and solutions belongs within that reach envelope. Equipment interface details, from station specs to the fixtures that surround them, are catalogued across the Sanyang Medical equipment range<\/a> for suites being equipped end to end.<\/p>\n The station specification that survives a project review names five things: station type and bowl count, activation method, water treatment requirements, mounting configuration, single, back-to-back or wall offset, and the service connections behind the wall. Purchasers coordinating a full suite can sequence scrub stations with the surgical lights, tables and pendants through the procurement checklist in our OR equipment procurement guide<\/a>, and the handover inspection should include a scrub-in trial under real staffing, because flow defects only appear when three people scrub while a fourth transports a patient. For suites planned as phased deliveries, station placement decisions interact with each phase’s room mix, the sequencing logic documented in our phased OR delivery case library under project case studies<\/a>.<\/p>\nHow Many Stations a Suite Needs<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nServices: Water, Drainage and the Wall Behind<\/h2>\n
Specifying Stations for a Suite Project<\/h2>\n
Video: Clinical Equipment Programs<\/h2>\n