Decontamination
Six enablers of reprocessing excellence
In this article, John Kimsey outlines how six ‘enablers’ form the foundation to reprocessing success. Together, they provide a practical framework for achieving safe, compliant, efficient, and sustainable reprocessing operations.
Reprocessing departments worldwide continue to face workforce shortages, capacity constraints, compliance pressures, and increasing procedural demand. Yet high- performing departments consistently achieve superior outcomes despite these challenges. What differentiates them is their investment in six critical ‘reprocessing enablers’ (see Fig 1): This article is part one of a four-part series exploring the enablers and how they form the foundation to reprocessing success. For clarity, this series refers to sterile processing (CSSD) and endoscopy processing areas together as ‘reprocessing’.
From struggling to thriving What started out as a response to reprocessing struggles has provided the framework for future success. In the years following the COVID-19 pandemic, reprocessing departments worldwide have struggled with staffing issues which has led to process and compliance lapses. As surgical procedures ramped back up, capacity constraints and ageing infrastructure further exacerbated the situation. Add government sustainability mandates, the drive to utilise technological advances, and limited financial capital, and reprocessing managers had more than they could handle. The reprocessing machine was broken. Resiliency became a necessary personal
and organisation attribute. Reprocessing departments had to figure out quickly how
to recover from the difficult environment. This time, there wasn’t just one burning fire; there were multiple. As leaders around the world began to address the issues, they began organising their efforts and conversations into enabling categories: l “We need to address our ageing infrastructure and equipment to ensure we have the capacity to keep up with our forecasted workloads” became the foundation of ‘Capacity’.
l “How can we recruit and retain employees who want to work in reprocessing?” laid the foundation for ‘People’.
l “With so many new inexperienced staff coming onboard, how do we simplify and automate our processes to ensure compliance” created the need for better ‘Process, Compliance, and Technology’ solutions.
Reprocessing leaders, industry thought leaders, consultants, and employees began creating solutions. From many independent efforts, arose a common theme that became the ‘Reprocessing Enablers’. Presenting the enablers as six unique elements underscores their interrelationship with each other. Capacity shortages create compliance risks. Staffing shortages impacts process performance. Technology supports compliance. Culture and Sustainability influences all operational aspects. This article
introduces the enablers and their critical role in reprocessing success. Subsequent articles in this four-part series will explore the details and application of each enabler in the reprocessing environment.
Capacity
As a support department, reprocessing must have the capacity to meet current and future workloads to support procedure volumes. Foundational to capacity is the appropriate level of equipment, infrastructure, and space. Without these three, nothing else matters. The ‘Capacity Enabler’ ensures reprocessing leaders can justify the equipment, infrastructure, and space to meet operational objectives and support the procedural volumes that drive healthcare. This structured approach to calculating equipment and infrastructure requirements also requires alignment of performance standards and expectations. What may initially appear to be a straightforward equipment decision, based on chamber capacity or other procurement requirements, can be very grey when you get into the details. Accurate capacity planning requires
Fig 1. Reprocessing enablers drive desired outcomes and operational excellence.
agreement on operational standards and expectations, including workflow assumptions on allowing backlogs or requiring continuous flow. Will the department comply with manufacturer IFUs or internal validated processes? What manual or automated processing options will be utilised and what level of inspection and testing is required? Leaders must also recognise the difference between capacity and throughput to ensure they adequately plan not only equipment and infrastructure needs, but also staffing to ensure the equipment is effectively utilised. Just because the steriliser is listed as a 10 STU steriliser doesn’t mean you actually sterilise 10 STUs of instruments every load. Capacity planning can be a strategic activity based on procedure market decisions and demand. Where will the procedures be performed, how many and what type of
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