Outpatient Surgery Magazine

How Safe Are Your Patients? - June 2016 - Subscribe to Outpatient Surgery Magazine

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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Rigid Sterilization Containers An open-and-shut case for bypassing blue wrap. W hen instrument trays show up in the OR with torn, sliced or otherwise compromised blue wrap, it's a major source of frustration. Not just for the surgical teams who see their preparations and start times delayed, but also for the sterile process- ing technicians who have to rewrap and resterilize the instruments. In our sterile processing department, we tried different kinds of wrapping and padding to cut down the number of compromised trays, but rigid sterilization containers really caught our attention. We were set to undergo a top-to-bottom renovation, so why not piggyback a switch from blue wrap to rigid containers onto it? Solid benefits The use of reusable hard cases as an alternative to single-use polypropylene blue wrap for instrument sterilization and storage doesn't require a multi-million-dollar facility upgrade, though. While implementing the containers involves an upfront investment in new equipment, it carries a multi-faceted payoff over the long term. Placing trays of instruments to be sterilized into sealable stainless steel or anodized aluminum containers provides an assurance of infection prevention, since there's no worry that the outer protection will tear as it's shelved, pulled or transported. You're also eliminating the staffing time and supply cost of blue wrap, not to mention the dis- posal cost and environmental impact of the waste it generates. Keeping in mind You'll want to keep a few factors in mind if you're planning to make the switch from blue wrap. First, there will be a size difference, since 1 1 8 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • J U N E 2 0 1 6 Thinking of Buying … John Meggs, MSC, CRCST

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