The knowledge of water in medical device processing is rising and with it there are quality expectations. Processing technicians now have new responsibilities to ensure the quality of water.

Improvement strategies explore how technology may help address the needs for increased productivity and how to effectively quantify the improvements.

Patient safety issues have led to the development of numerous tools to help technicians determine whether or not a medical device is verifiably clean and ready for high-level disinfection or sterilization.

Sterilization of instruments is critical to infection prevention and patient safety.

Obsolescence has many hidden costs, but depending on the type, obsolescence can also yield benefits.

Whichever and wherever a sterilization process is used, it must be validated and routinely monitored to ensure ongoing efficacy

In this second article covering chemical indicators, we will examine the international standards for chemical indicators, how they are categorized, how they are tested and how practice standards describe they should be used.

The performance and demands of the OR equally influence the effectiveness of SP. This symbiotic partnership underscores the mutual dependency, with each department playing a crucial role in the other's success.

Flexible endoscopes are among the most complex and indispensable medical devices used in healthcare. And yet, despite mounting evidence identifying cross contamination opportunities during endoscope processing, many sterile processing and endoscopy departments dedicate little space to the proper cleaning, rinsing, and disinfection or sterilization of these lumened scopes. At the same time, regulatory and guidance organizations are taking a hard look at the details of this process and are updating best-practice recommendations. This is likely to lead to changes in processes, equipment and workflow space to enable compliant flexible endoscope processing.

As Sterile Processing & Distribution (SPD) departments all over the world evolve as one of the most key areas of hospitals and surgery centers, how we manage our data and true facts of the many processes performed have become paramount.

Discussing quality in Sterile Processing may seem vague and overwhelming. However, you do not have to be an industrial engineer to learn the ropes and jargon to develop, implement and participate in a successful quality management program

The process of conducting competency assessments within the Sterile Processing Department.

The tone and attitude that we use within our department reflects our standard operating procedures (SOPs). SOPs allow for the department and its professionals to work together because everyone knows what goals they are working towards.

Training comes with its own considerations like learning style, retention ability of the participant, and ease of performing the process. When SOPs are haphazardly created due to poor, rushed, and/or reactive development, the frontline SP professional’s ability to retain key information can feel like a constant battle.

The influence of planning sessions on creating an effective plan through necessary actions for anticipated or needed outcomes.

As the healthcare industry incorporates quality systems into daily operations and patient care, professionals face the challenge of defining what it means to provide “quality care” within an organization that serves patients.

Sterile processing departments must adapt to the increasing volume and complexity of RAS instrumentation reprocessing.

Is this expired? It seems like the question should be an easy one to answer by looking at the label of any time-sensitive item in a sterile processing department (SPD). But what if the labeled expiration date isn’t the one you need to follow?