STERILE PROCESSING
Navigating the challenges ecause staffing shortages are the number one issue SSPs face today that directly impacts reprocessing workflows, John imsey, P perations, Instrument Processing, SEIS, eplains how depart- ments hae established a new work assign- ment to alleiate the labor burden. o maimie output
of eery single SP tech- nician, we found that utiliing a aigator assignment in decontami- nation and assembly helps minimie the time staff need to leae their work- stations, increases their productiity, and improes the reprocessing workflow, said imsey. he aigator manages the instrument flow throughout the room bringing the prioritied work to the tech- nician at the sink or assembly table and then takes it to the washer or sterilier. y leeraging one person to manage the rooms flow, the rest of the team stays focused on their work.
John Kimsey
Simple, standardized communication he central goal of SSP operations is to support safe and effectie patient care. In its Position Statement on Patient Safety, the ssociation of periperatie egistered urses () calls out the following components as ital to a safe perioperatie enironment Effectie communication, effectie cleaning and care of instruments, deeloping and testing system improe- ments, and measuring effects and outcomes oer time.2 ynn urbank, P, S, , FE, I, Senior anager Infection Preention, edical and Scientific ffairs, lympus orporation of the mericas, says effec- tie communication should be standardied and sim- ple for all users and recom- mends SSP teams use a tool such as Situation, ackground, ssessment and ecommendation (S). esearchers hae found S to be a reliable and alidated communication tool that has shown to reduce aderse eents in a hospital setting, improe communication among healthcare proiders and promote patient safety.3 his method of communication has
Lynn Burbank
been widely accepted for the handoff of patients from one proider to another and can be an effectie tool for coney- ing processing steps, said urbank. She describes how S can be used to
Process standardization he more a SSP team can standard- ie its operations and ensure compliance, the better product they will produce with fewer errors, says imsey. He recommends teams document how the task should be completed, ensure staff are educated and trained to complete the task, create lead- ership routines that ensure and measure compliance, and proide isual tools and real-time instructions to eliminate reliance on memory. I often talk to eadership outines as foundational to any successful SP and the same is true here, he said. If you take the time to standardie and train your staff, you should also implement eadership outines that include regular obserations and rounds of staff to ensure they are following the standard work and create a culture of adherence. imsey says Efin instructions for use
(IF) compliance software for decontamina- tion is one eample of bringing standard work and IF reuirements to the techni- cian in real time. nother is the SEIS SP Surgical sset racking Software uided orkflow functionality, which allows a S SP team to breakdown comple IFs into manageable checklists and instructions that technicians follow step by step to ensure they complete each step correctly. oth solutions reuire education and an inestment in processes as well as people, imsey added. I cannot oerstate the importance of taking the time to inest in your staff, proide them the training they need, and then proide positie support and feedback. So many SPs do not een hae an Educator let alone time to inest in their staff that it is no surprise our industry has such a high turnoer rate that directly impacts our ability to proide the reuired uality product.
Cross-functional collaboration ecause sterile processing workflows etend outside the department and into
40 July 2022 • HEALTHCARE PURCHASING NEWS •
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optimie safety, uality and efficiency in a SSP department Situation eplains when the procedure was completed, ifwhen precleaning was performed and what occurred after the procedure
ackground proides contet on the deice and patient information, along with data regarding any problems that occurred with the deice during the procedure
ssessment eplains the condition of the deice
ecommendation identifies the net step in managing the deice
procedural areas, cross-functional collabo- ration with clinical teams is often critical to boosting efficacy, safety and efficiency. ase in point he SSP team at Siler
ross Hospital in ew eno, Ill., engaged in cross-functional collaboration with its clinical customers in an effort to improe the point of use (P) cleaning workflow. he hospital established a multifunctional, multi-departmental team to tackle P instrument processing to standardie the return of instrumentation from the and other departments to the SSP after use. Sterile Processing anager Jim yrell described the initiatie SPs customers
were diided into reg- ular instrument users s. one-off occasional users. he rareoccasional instrument users or units were proided with bins, instructions, PPE and indiidual enymatic spray to comply with I reuirements for proper instrument care at point of use. egular use departments, like and abor and eliery, were proided all these items for proper instrument care at P ahead of time in specific areas needed. e hae instituted uality monitoring
Jim Tyrell
and feedback to the departments ust-in- time to be sure all departments comply with the I standards. ll these efforts hae helped streamline throughput and work processing workflows, yrell added. yrell notes how his department is also inoled in a collaboratie effort to address another issue that impacts sterile process- ing workflows late loaner tray delieries. ot uncommon in many SPs, late
loaner delieries put stress on afternoon staffing and capacity to get priority items processed on -time for the net days cases, said yrell. Siler ross is partnering with our loaner processing endor, asechek, to reinforce cutoff times and to notify endors using on-time data where endors are fail- ing to comply. his continues to be a work in progress.
Minimizing waste he key challenge for any workflow is identifying and eliminating waste, according to Jeff Pauet, President E, obile edical International orporation Solutions. t any point of the day
Jeff Paquet
when work has piled up or that a piece of euipment doesnt hae a load in it, it means there is probably waste in the workflow, said Pauet. asted time, non-alue- added actiity, and wasted moement
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