Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/517590
35 Executive Briefing: Improving the Sterile Processing Department Sponsored by: H ospital's sterile processing departments play an under- the-radar yet critically important role in patient care. While their function may not be prominently known to patients, they are responsible for safely sterilizing and repro- cessing medical and surgical supplies and equipment, and if they face obstacles outside their control that hamper their work, it can delay surgeries and even lead to infections and other forms of patient harm. Like at many hospitals, the sterile processing department at Cincinnati Children's Hospital was facing some challenges. The hospital's sterile processing department had been dealing with problems associated with package integrity of wrapped trays and a time crunch associated with trays coming in from vendors, according to Matt Tewksbury, director of sterile pro- cessing and distribution at the hospital. For instance, despite the best efforts of the department's staff, wrapped trays that had unique designs, like sharp corners, be- came contaminated. "There [would be] a hole in the tray and we have to process it again," Mr. Tewksbury explains. That problem can lead to delayed surgeries or hurried staff trying to turn over the trays in time for the next case, which can lead to more problems. Surgeons at Cincinnati Children's also perform many proce- dures — especially spine surgeries — that require trays from vendors, according to Mr. Tewksbury. Sometimes, vendors de- liver a set just hours before the surgery the trays are needed for, leaving the sterile processing department in a hurry to get everything ready and safe for the patient and surgical team. "Sometimes they [the loaner trays] come in in a timely fashion, but sometimes they come a few hours before the case," Mr. Tewksbury says, which turns into a "hurry-up" situation in the sterile processing department to get them ready for the OR staff. These two pain points became enough of a problem that Mr. Tewksbury and other Cincinnati Children's leaders decided to make one change that would address both issues: changing to One Tray for tray sterilization. The One Tray system, which is 510(k) cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, is a rapid processing and ster- ilization system that involves a rigid container and proprietary filters. Most notably, the One Tray system requires no dry or cool time, cutting a lot of time out of the sterilization process. In fact, the system has been validated for zero minutes of mini- mum dry/cool time. With the One Tray system, Cincinnati Children's sterile pro- cessing department now has "the ability to process a large number of trays in a small amount of time," Mr. Tewksbury ex- plains. "We're cutting out a significant amount of sterilization time — the dry time," he says. The One Tray system's rigid design also eliminates the pack- age integrity issue completely, he says, because the trays are no longer being wrapped. Cincinnati Children's has an adequate number of the trays in use currently. The hospital uses them mostly on loaner trays from vendors, to speed turnover. In a few instances, the sterile processing staff will use the system to sterilize trays that had package integrity concerns. How One Product Can Help Sterile Processing Departments Achieve Efficiency Cincinnati Children's sterile processing department was facing problems associated with package integrity of wrapped trays and a time crunch associated with trays coming in from vendors