blood and bioburden from complex, hinged instruments or lumened
devices that are difficult, if not impossible, to manually clean.
While automation isn't new to SPD, there have been some key
advancements in this area. The most significant involves single-cham-
ber washers, which are designed for cleaning and intermediate-level
disinfection of soiled reusable trays, and allow facilities to upgrade
from a semi-manual (or even manual) decontamination system to an
automated one.
5. Staff-friendly additions
If you want to be successful at building a new sterile processing
department — or renovating an existing one — you need to have a
point person who currently works in sterile processing involved in the
F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 3 9
