The Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) and the International Association of Healthcare Central Service Materiel Management (IAHCSMM) announced today a collaborative agreement that will give more healthcare professionals greater access to important hospital sterilization standards. 

Through the agreement, IAHCSMM members will be able to receive the AAMI member discount price when purchasing AAMI hospital sterilization standards. The discount amounts to as much as $100 on key AAMI guidance. The impetus of the collaboration was the recent release of ANSI/AAMI ST79, Comprehensive guide to steam sterility and sterility assurance in health care facilities, a groundbreaking set of guidelines for steam sterilization activities in healthcare facilities. 

The new standard is a landmark guidance document for hospital sterile processing departments, said IAHCSMM president Don Gordon. IAHCSMM representatives were part of the AAMI Steam Sterilization Working Group, which drafted the American National Standard. It truly belongs in every hospital in the United States, and we are thankful to AAMI for helping make itand AAMIs entire group of hospital sterile processing standards and guidance documentsmore accessible to healthcare organizations that, more and more, are faced with dwindling budgets and operating losses. 

IAHCSMM members who wish to take advantage of the program should contact AAMIs Customer Service Center at 877-249-8226 or visit AAMI's Web site at 

http://www.aami.org/publications/iahcsmm.html