Help Your Reprocessors Do the Right Thing
Give your techs the training and the tools they need to bust those bugs.
O
ne unseen
Fogarty
insert that
makes its way back
to the OR can cost
your facility
upwards of $10,000
if it's discovered on
the sterile field, not
to mention the
unthinkable possibil-
ity of the instrument
being reused on an
unknowing patient. But how do you ensure that your first line of
defense against processing breakdowns — your central sterile area —
will stop these dangers in their tracks? If you make it easy for your
reprocessors to do the right thing, more often than not, they will. Here
are some ways to do just that.
Stock the armory: it's tool time! As a decontamination techni-
cian, nothing's more frustrating than to be asked to do a job, but
not have the tools you need to do the job well. Flush every cannula. But
how? Brush every suction. With what? When your team walks into the
decontamination area to start the day, it should be fully stocked with
every processing tool they'll need to complete the task laid before them:
mass microbial destruction. At the very least, you should have the fol-
lowing: brushes of proper style, diameter and length (including pass-
through brushes), adequate flushing technologies (a low-tech hose or
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1 2 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 A N U A R Y 2 0 1 7
Infection Prevention
Weston "Hank" Balch, CRCST, CIS, CHL
• STOCKED, LOCKED + LOADED Is your decontamination area stocked with every processing tool your
techs need to do their jobs?