country.
"The real problem is that there is not a national standard with
respect to post-secondary education," says Dr. Nichol. "Reprocessing
techs need advanced training in subjects like chemistry, informatics,
instrument identification, infection control and waste disposal. The
reason there is no standard curriculum is because people don't get
paid much to do the job. Why would deans of colleges start a program
for professionals who are making $15 an hour? How will they pay for
their education?
"Developing education and solving the salary issue will be critical to
where we need to go," he says.
Grassroot gains
Those are big solutions to a layered and complex problem, but you
can make a difference in your facility by spending time in the ster-
ile processing department and finding solutions within your own
space.
• Assess the process. Analyze every aspect of the reprocessing cycle,
looking for obvious signs of waste, over-production and wasted move-
ments. Gather everyone involved in the process, from surgeons to repro-
cessing techs, because each of them thinks they know exactly what
everybody else is doing, but can't know for certain until they all look at
the flow of instruments together. Sit in a room with sticky notes or a
whiteboard and literally note each step of the process, however seem-
ingly small you think an aspect might be. Ask everyone in the room to
describe exactly what they do and what part of the process they own.
"It never ceases to amaze me what happens when you get all of
these people in the same room and start visually assessing the
process," says Rachel Mandel, MD, MHA, an independent healthcare
consultant based in Washington, D.C. "People look at each other and
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