M A Y 2 0 1 5 O U T P A T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T 3 7
Mindy Hoffman, RN, CNOR, manager of the Outpatient Surgery Center at Sharp
Chula Vista (Calif.), can count on 1 hand the number of times her facility has
flashed thus far this year: 3. "If we flashed, you can bet it was a true emergency"
— like an odd drill bit that came in from a loaner ortho set or a retractor wing nut
that fell to the floor while someone was trying to tighten it.
Such infrequent flashing wasn't always the case. In the center's early years,
routine flashing was the norm. Each eye surgeon had a single set of instruments
— that's right, there weren't any backup sets — which techs flashed after each
case. "We were flashing all day long," says Ms. Hoffman. Ms. Hoffman's simple
flash-avoidance policy: Have enough instrument sets for your daily caseload or
schedule cases to allow for enough time between cases for full-cycle reprocess-
ing.
Only in an emergency
While it's best to avoid flash-sterilizing surgical instruments in non-emergency
situations, there are times when you have no other choice but to run instru-
ments through an immediate-use cycle. Sometimes flashing is unavoidable, such
as when several of the same types of cases are stacked consecutively on the
schedule and you don't have enough instrument trays. "Immediate-use steriliza-
tion is an effective way to quickly get instruments back into the hands of physi-
cians when — and only when — emergent situations prevent the possibility of
full reprocessing cycles," says Trish Stoutzenberger, ST, CRCST, CHL, manager
of central sterile supply at Lancaster (Pa.) General Hospital.
OSM
E-mail doconnor@outpatientsurgery.net.
