teams, infection control, risk and administration.
On-time loaner deliveries
A final benchmark to consider captures the critical delivery win-
dows for your external vendor-owned implant loaner trays. Depending
on the volume of orthopedic or neuro loaner instruments your facility
requires, late deliveries can have a dramatic impact on your team's
ability to compliantly process these trays in time for their scheduled
surgical procedures. Industry delivery expectations range anywhere
from 24 to 72 hours before the start of the case to ensure your depart-
ment is adequately staffed to safely and compliantly support this addi-
tional reprocessing volume.
Time to measure metrics
Hopefully, we've given you some practical benchmarks you can use to
measure success and position your reprocessing teams for ongoing
improvements that are measurable, realistic and transparent. While
there are many different measurements available to gauge your cur-
rent state and overall department progress, these 10 will give you the
clearest picture of your reprocessing quality.
OSM
Mr. Balch (hank@beyondclean.net) is the founder and president of Beyond
Clean, which offers sterile processing consulting. Follow him on Twitter at
@BeyondCleanInfo.
Infection Prevention
IP
2 2 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • A U G U S T 2 0 1 9
10