I don't have to tell
you that "torn-wrap-
per syndrome" is a
serious setback to the
surgical schedule. A
hole, even the tiniest
tear, will cause a
delay in the case.
When do you typically
discover a hole in the
blue wrap? Either the
scrub discovers a
hole when he's
pulling instruments for a case or a nurse finds it when she's opening
the room and there's a patient on the table already under anesthesia.
Extra manpower and time is required to remove the set, find another
if available or re-sterilize the set in question. This extra workload
results in decreased efficiency, increased immediate-use steam sterili-
zation (flashing), and increased frustration to the surgical team and
central sterile personnel. How prevalent was the problem? There are
typically 6 pans for total knee cases. Chances are, we'd find a hole in 1
of the 6 wrapped pans. Sometimes a slice is hard to see. Even when
you're inspecting the inside of the wrap, it's hard to see a tear in the
wrap.
I know the problem firsthand. In addition to managing our sterile
processing department, I'm also a scrub. I've been in cases where
you'd place the set on the table and then notice there's a hole, which
means the entire table is contaminated. You have to tear the whole
thing down and start all over again.
1 0 4 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • M A R C H 2 0 1 6
• STORAGE Rigid containers require significantly more storage space than wrapped sets.
George
Corona,
ORT
