Sterile Processing

In today's ever-changing healthcare environment, patients demand more advanced procedures and equipment that take the pain and recovery time out of surgery. While they seek these advancements, they have forget how complicated it is to clean, inspect and test this advanced equipment. However, navigating a path through our consumer marketplace, we cannot go for a drive without seeing billboards advertising the latest and greatest robotic 3D surgery. The consumer demand for more advanced surgery has transitioned into an expectation.

The recent attention to dirty instruments is interesting, as this is not a new issue. For years, sterile processing professionals have been dealing with issues surrounding reprocessing of reusable medical devices and surgical instrumentation. One of the major reasons certification programs were developed for sterile processing personnel was to be able to verify competencies for personnel performing the critical functions of cleaning, high-level disinfection and sterilization.

People across the United States now know that hair dressers need some form of certification to do their jobs but if you are cleaning surgical instruments for surgery, unless you live in New Jersey, you are not required by law to have some basic knowledge to do the task at hand -- cleaning and sterilizing medical devices in a medical facility.

In recent years, there has been an increased discussion in the healthcare arena concerning the proper, consistent cleaning and reprocessing of endoscopes. Healthcare facilities failure to protect patients from the risk of exposure to disease has made headlines. Reacting to those headlines, accreditation agencies and health departments are increasing their surveillance of practices of scope reprocessing.