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nate microbial life.
The most immediate indicators are the physical monitors incorporated into
sterilization equipment. They register, record and report the parameters for
every cycle, such as the elapsed time and the temperature and pressure condi-
tions in the chamber. The data from these real-time assessments — which are
provided through gauges, graphs and printouts — demonstrate that the system
has met the prescribed parameters, or identify sterilizer malfunctions and the
need for corrective action. All sterile processing team members should know
how to review this data.
Physical monitors don't tell everything, though. For example, they can't tell
you about the conditions inside of the wrapped trays or rigid containers that
contain the instruments you're sterilizing. That's why you can't rely on physical
monitoring alone to verify that sterilization has been achieved, and why chemi-
cal and biological indicators are also necessary.
Chemical choices
Like the data from physical monitors, chemical indicators don't directly estab-
lish that a processed package is sterile. They do, however, verify that it was
exposed to sterilizing conditions, and in differentiating processed from
unprocessed items, they can help your staff detect procedural errors and equip-
ment malfunctions.
Unlike physical monitoring data, chemical indicators are also able to report
internal conditions. FDA-approved, sterilizer manufacturer-recommended chem-
ical indicators should be placed on the outside and inside of each package to be
sterilized, unless the internal indicator is readable through the package material.
Chemical indicators are grouped into 6 types, based on how they work (Type 1
and Type 5 indicators are currently the most commonly used). External indica-
tors include:
• Type 1 (also called process indicators) are tapes or labels that change colors
to show that the package has been exposed to the sterilization process. They
