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O U T P AT 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 | F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 4
O
ur nurses and techs
place a small steriliza-
tion container lock on
instrumentation that needs to go
out for repair. This communi-
cates to the central sterile
department to not put the item
back in its tray. They instead put
it in the repair bin and replace it
with a properly working instru-
ment.
Many times after a case, the
OR staff are in a hurry and forget
to verbally communicate instru-
mentation problems to central
sterile. With this simple system,
staff can tag the instrument right
on the sterile field or when clean-
ing up the case. That way the surgical
team doesn't complain that they told cen-
tral sterile an instrument was broken, but it
ended up back in the OR.
Cheryl Jaczewski, RN, BS, CNOR, MLSO
St. Joseph Hospital
Cheektowaga, N.Y.
cjaczews@chsbuffalo.org
STERILE INDICATOR
Tag Broken
Instruments
IN NEED OF REPAIR Sterilization container
locks let central sterile know to pull instru-
ments from the rotation.
Cheryl
Jaczewski,
RN,
BS,
CNOR,
MLSO
IDEAS
That Work
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