(This is the first installment of a short series of articles focused on surgical instrument quality, repair, and refurbishment from the perspective of a UK instrument manufacturer and repair professional [Daniel Coole] and a US sterile processing consultant [Hank Balch]). Daniel Coole: Would you stir you coffee with this (surgical instrument)? I love this question…
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Few people realize the true scope of potential harm in an every day visit to a local clinic, until you see a headline like this hit the news. Is it anecdotal? Well, yes, in the sense that it’s a potential outbreak and not a research project. But it’s also important to note that no patient…
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Your surgical volume is increasing. The all-star surgeons were successfully recruited from the competitors across town. Your facility earned Magnet status, recently made some kind of US News & World Report Best Hospital list, and you even passed your last accreditation survey. Bravo. All is well with the world, right? Well, not so fast. Chances…
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3…2…1… The door to decontamination opens. In walk three strangers with bunny suits and clipboards in hand, followed closely by an anxious looking Perioperative Director, with eyes darting back and forth across the empty case carts and stacks of contaminated surgical trays. And there YOU stand… Maybe you’re the frontline Sterile Processing technician who just…
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Is every medical device in your hospital cleaned, inspected, and sterilized in compliance with the manufacturer’s instructions for use (IFUs)? No, seriously. Be honest: Do you have the required sizes and types of every brush, listed on every IFU, for every instrument in your inventory?Is every suction, cannula, lumen, or ported device flushed at the…
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I fought the Uber-craze for a long time. I mean, get in the car with a complete stranger and trust them to get me safely from point A to point B?! Nah, I prefer to live. But seriously. I was a late-comer to the blessing commonly known as Uber. Interestingly enough, my first experience as…
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I’ll never forget the day. I walked into the CS department as a new leader and it was like going back to a 1980’s-era office for a high-school career counselor. Pictures of cute little kittens holding on a limb by only a fluffy paw with the words “Hang in there!” bold across the bottom, and…
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There are few more frightening phone calls that a surgical patient could receive than one notifying them that “Our sterilization processes failed. You may be infected with HIV, hepatitis B, or hepatitis C.” WHAT!? A million thoughts go racing through the mind – “I had a knee replacement. What does that have to do with…
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It hit me. The unexplainable roulette wheel of acute appendicitis respects no one. And this time, it was my number that came up. Around 3pm a week ago I started feeling a little pressure in my tummy. Just general discomfort, nothing big. After dinner we took our two year old for a walk around the…
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This is not a hit piece. But I am going to say some hard things. I have many close friends involved in the Sterile Processing temporary staffing industry, as both recruiters and “travelers” — and I’d be the first to defend them as the epitome of professionalism, honesty, and high quality work ethic. This article…
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