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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On the same page Emphasizing the impor- tance of instrument pre- cleaning sounds simple enough, but it can be a struggle to make sure it's done consistently and effec- tively. That's where strong leadership comes into play. Your OR directors and ster- ile processing managers need to develop a good working relationship. They both need to understand how long it takes to reprocess instrument trays, the steps involved and why cutting corners at any point in the process can negative- ly affect patient care. They also need to understand the risks involved if reprocess- ing steps are skipped. Building a relationship between these two departments will also create accountability among members of the surgical team, because they'll understand the importance of precleaning instru- ments, appreciate how long it takes to reprocess trays, realize that the job can't be rushed and realize it's best to let sterile processing techs do their job to keep things moving along at an efficient pace. Getting both groups to work in concert demands clear communication and a willingness to cooperate, and building that bond isn't some- thing that happens overnight. The OR and SPD speak different clinical languages, which can often cause misunderstandings. It's important that team members in both areas learn to communicate clearly and constructively. It's a two-way street: The OR needs to fully understand the processes in place in sterile processing, and reprocessing techs need to understand how instruments are used in the ORs and the importance of returning the tools to surgical teams as quickly as possible. Both groups are constantly under a lot of pres- sure and it pays to remain calm, cool and collected. If the OR is giving off high- strung, stressed-out energy, reprocessing techs need to stay as relaxed as possible and filter out the noise to make sound, proper deci- sions. If they're stressed out and give into that stress, they could skip an impor- tant instrument reprocess- ing step, which could jeop- ardize safe patient care. Everyone in your facility must have the patient in mind at all times. One thing I always tell my reprocessing staff is that no matter how much pressure they might be feeling from the OR to reprocess instru- ments quickly, they must not skip the critical step of putting instrument trays through an automatic wash- er. If the OR needs a tray to be reprocessed immedi- ately, a frazzled reprocessing tech might quickly handwash the instruments and soak them for a minute or less — or maybe not at all. The tray would get manually scrubbed down, rinsed off and then pushed through to techs who'd ready it for steriliza- tion, rather than getting run through an ultrasonic cleaner — which uses mechanical vibrations to agi- tate a cleaning solution to aid in the removal of soil from the surfaces of surgical devices — and soaked for several minutes. If you have good, strong surgical leaders who understand what goes into reprocessing instrument trays, they will likely pass this knowledge along to the rest of the OR staff. But sometimes, seeing and experiencing what goes on in the sterile processing department is the education surgical teams need to get on board with properly precleaning instruments. OR staff are frequently amazed at how long it takes to reprocess even a basic instrument tray, and see- ing reprocessing techs in action gives them a better appreciation of the pressures their colleagues face on a daily basis. When OR staff members come 5 4 • O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 0 CLEAN START When surgical teams wipe down instruments in the OR, sterile reprocessing techs have less bioburden to remove. William DeLuca