Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Helping Hand - July 2019 - Subscribe to Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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tion to OR nurses and surgical technicians on proper dirty instrument initial cleaning and preparation for transport. 4 Improved and standardized workflows. We added an addi- tional sink to create a 3-sink system of soaking, cleaning and rinsing. This lets techs perform an initial rinse, followed by hand-washing, and then a final rinse. We improved workstations by organizing and stocking each station with uniform items needed for processing. In addition to prioritizing sets to be cleaned, we also reviewed and revised instrument sets — removing or adding instru- ments — to reduce unnecessary instrument reprocessing based on utilization data. 5 Safety checklists. What gets measured gets done, right? We developed checklists to document sterilization tracking and environmental safety in SPD. We created a competency check- list for all elements of the decontamination and sterilization process for soiled equipment. Staff complete the checklist with each set of instruments they process. 6 Staffing changes. We changed leadership in SPD, replacing a surgical tech with an RN to provide administrative support and to perform professional-level administrative duties. We restruc- tured shifts to accommodate changes in workload and hired addition- al staff to support workload increases. We transferred the assistant director of the OR to SPD to oversee 1 month of comprehensive ster- ile processing process and procedures training for SPD staff who had previously not undergone formal training. The goal was to educate SPD staff on best practices based on AORN and AAMI guidelines. 1 0 6 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • J U L Y 2 0 1 9

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