made a concerted
effort to invest in
the sterile process-
ing department, a
space of critical
importance in an
instrument-heavy
specialty such as
orthopedics. They
wired the facility at
480 watts in part to
accommodate a pair
of automated instru-
ment washers — replicate every piece of equipment, suggests Mr.
Cera, because if one goes down, another is online, ready to go — with
25-minute cycle times, an important factor to maintain an efficient
schedule during a day involving instrument-heavy procedures.
The washers feature the latest cleaning technology with capaci-
ties 2 times larger than the models in the group's previous facility.
Each joint replacement sends 7 to 9 instrument trays to central ster-
ile for reprocessing. The large-capacity washers help the reprocess-
ing techs keep up with the heavy workload. "In an 8-hour day, the
washers help us gain 3.25 hours of added efficiency," says Mr. Cera.
• Help patients recover. Entrance and bathroom doors in private
patient recovery rooms at Good Samaritan's surgery center are 2.5
times wider than standard doorways, which are often difficult for
recovering patients to navigate on walkers. Each room is also
equipped with digital monitoring equipment, which sends vital signs
data to the facility's electronic medical record for near real-time
auditing by the clinical team. A communal dining area is where all
3 0 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0
• EXTRA SPACE Good Samaritan Hospital's sleek new surgery center was built to
accommodate the 400 total joint procedures the facility performs each year.
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