We knew we had a major
sterilization (and schedul-
ing!) concern when we
began noticing an increas-
ing number of holes in our
blue wrap: punctures, pin-
holes, tears and shelf-slices.
What were the culprits?
Were the hot instruments
melting the wax coating on
the wrap onto the wire stor-
age rack? Were we carelessly
slamming wrapped items on
the shelves? We even asked
each staff member who han-
dled a wrapped instrument
to initial the pack if there
were no holes in it. In the
end, we blamed the
increased number of holes
on the corners of the metal
containers. It was as if some-
one had taken a box cutter and made a small slice in the wrap.
Sometimes the slice would go all the way through so you could see the
blue towel that's used for cushioning.
Think about why blue wrap punctures and tears so frequently. It's
because you handle a wrapped set by the sterile barrier. The very fab-
ric that protects the instrument set and maintains the sterile barrier is
what you grab onto when you put the wrapped set on a shelf, slide it
across a table or place it on the case cart.
M A R C H 2 0 1 6 • O U T PA T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T • 1 0 3
• PROOF OF STERILITY x 2 A rigid container can tell you
that the items inside have been sterilized — the dot on the
orange plastic padlock changes from blue to black and the
strip on the white ID card changes from white to black.
George
Corona,
ORT
