it moist and start the
cleaning process.
"Think of the plastic
tubes that hold fresh-
cut roses," she
explains.
After the instru-
ment arrives in cen-
tral sterile and is
scrubbed clean, it is
swabbed as part of
the hospital's clean-
ing verification system. The swab is then checked for missed pro-
tein using a hand-held luminometer. "We do upwards of 10,000
trays a month," says Ms. Mavrelos. "We probably perform 15 to 30
swabs per day, randomly. If we see something that's not clean, we
send it back to repeat the process."
It's not just the instruments that get the swabbing treatment.
"We do other things, too, because everything is contributory," she
adds. "We swab everything from handles, to doors, to desks, to
keyboards, to telephones, to even staffers' hands, just to make
sure we're not contaminating the clean instruments.
"Patient safety is always No. 1," says Ms. Mavrelos. "There's no
guarantees of anything in life or sterile processing. But any tech-
nology that can help, we'll consider."
OSM
F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 6 • O U T PA T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T • 1 0 3
• BETTER PROTECTION Help prevent patient pressure injuries by using the latest
memory-foam and viscoelastic-gel positioners.
Pamela
Bevelhymer,
RN,
BSN
