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I N F E C T I O N
P R E V E N T I O N
Chobin. "Are you using the correct detergent and dilution, in the correct temperature range?" Staff should do nothing less, and nothing
more, than specified by manufacturers. "If you change one thing, you
invalidate the process."
Don't neglect the protection of your staff, either. "People sometimes
get a little slack when it comes to wearing PPEs correctly," says Mr.
Gonzales. Decontamination techs should wear a face mask (with eye
shield or goggles), bouffant hair cover, water-resistant gown with long
sleeves, heavy non-latex gloves that overlap the cuffs, and shoe covers
whenever they handle dirty instruments.
4. You assume that loaned instruments are clean.
"We need to process in our own facility anything that comes in on
loan from a company," says Mr. Gonzales. Even if it's redundant (and
there's no way to know this for sure), don't risk safety by skipping
decontamination before sterilizing loaner items.
"Reps are apt to bring loaner sets in an hour before a case," says Ms.
Imes. "We need them at least a day before," and need to know even
before then what it will take to reprocess them, as mentioned above.
For an elective schedule, this shouldn't be hard, she notes. Just make
sure you know which cases are using borrowed instruments, and
remind the reps.
5. Your OR staffers don't lend a hand.
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O U T PAT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | M A R C H 2013
