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INFECTION CONTROL
Diane M. Wolk, RN, MSN, CNOR, and Dennis R. Delisle, MHSA, PMP
A ROADMAP FOR EFFICIENCY We trimmed the waste between sterile processing and the OR.
From the OR to Central Sterile and Back Again
There are 50 or so steps involved in cleaning an instrument tray.
We set out on a quest to eliminate as many those steps as possible.
If you look closely at how your sterile processing department and
OR work together, you may see what we found — a system
weighed down by many unnecessary and inefficient steps, all of
which led to frustrating delays and plenty of wasted dollars. It wasn't
anyone's fault. It had just evolved that way over time thanks to
workarounds, bloat and a "We've always done it this way" attitude.
And while people occasionally griped about it, no one knew exactly
how to fix it. Until, that is, we took a big step back and methodically
mapped out the 50 or so steps involved in getting used instruments
from the OR to sterile processing and back again. It took some time
— we spent many hours observing and went through many packs of
sticky notes — but it was time well spent.
Creating a map using sticky notes
