Outpatient Surgery Magazine

The Power to Prevent SSIs - June 2017 - 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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7 2 • 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 7 T he 2 times we delivered contaminated sets to the OR were 2 times too many. We were fortunate that no patients suffered infections, but we realized we had to improve the coordination and communication between the ORs and the sterile processing department to ensure unsterilized instruments never again reached the sterile field. We came up with a standard sterility verification method to confirm the sterility of instruments in wrapped instrument trays or rigid sterilization con- tainers. Here's a step-by-step guide to how you can implement our checkpoint method, which we call the "Four-Five Points Check" sys- tem, so named because OR and SPD staff members verify the sterility of instruments multiple times by checking sterilization indicators in wrapped trays or rigid containers. OSM 1. SEVERAL LOOKS The program cen- ters on a 4-point check of wrapped instrument trays and a 5-point check of rigid instrument con- tainers. We added both sets of checklists to instrument count sheets — a line for each that staff members in SPD and the OR must complete — for easy reference and consistent application. Ms. Vergara (ffatimaverg@aol.com) is a staff nurse in the operating room at Kaiser Permanente Woodland Hills (Calif.) Medical Center. Guaranteed Delivery of Sterilized Sets Our crosscheck program verifies that wrapped and rigid instrument trays arrive in the OR ready for use. Fatima C. Vergara, RN, BSN, CNOR, RNFA | Woodland Hills, Calif. Photography by Kaiser Permanente Woodland Hills (Calif.) Medical Center

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