category, they can certainly puncture a glove."
Help limit sharps injury risks in sterile processing by reminding your
surgical team to neatly organize dirty instruments in trays and string
sharps together before sending them for reprocessing. That will pre-
vent techs from having to untangle a pile of potentially dangerous
instruments.
5. Promote proper protection
Another incident report from OSHA: In July 2015 at HCA West Florida
Hospitals in Hudson, Fla., an employee was loading a 35% peracetic
acid concentrate canister into a sterilizer when the acid sprayed out
of the canister, burning the employee's eyes, neck, upper chest, arm,
hand and face. As that frightening example demonstrates, sterile pro-
cessing techs are constantly exposed to hazardous chemicals, so
wearing proper personal protection equipment (PPE) is imperative;
make sure reprocessing techs always don head coverings, face
shields, gloves, gowns and shoe covers.
Techs have to understand that although PPE can be hot and uncom-
fortable, it must be worn at all times. You must lead by example.
"Managers may talk the talk, but then they'll run into the decontamina-
tion area without PPE on just to tell somebody their PTO request was
approved," says Ms. Lind. "That sends the wrong message about safe-
ty."
OSM
7 0 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • O C T O B E R 2 0 1 9
