aren't in the room,
scrub techs in the
OR don't realize how
complex instrument
reprocessing has
become, says Cherry
Maloney, RN, MBA,
CSPM, the former
central sterile man-
ager at the Callahan
Eye Hospital in
Birmingham, Ala.
Worst of all, perhaps, is the inherent adversarial nature of the relation-
ship. "What's taking so long with those instruments? You're holding up
the schedule," says the scrub tech. To which the instrument tech fumes
in reply: "I'm going as fast as I can. Would it be too much trouble for
you to place instruments in their correct trays after use and wipe
them clean before you send them down to us?"
What's an OR manager to do to get the groups to work in harmony?
Here are some suggestions.
1. Role swapping
Have members of both teams walk a day in the other's shoes to gain a
better understanding of the pressures each department faces, says Ms.
Seavey. Assign scrub techs to spend a day working in sterile process-
ing, where they can help decontaminate instruments, run sterilizers
and assemble instrument packs to get a feel for the demands of clean-
ing and sterilizing a steady stream of trays. Have instrument techs
step away from the sterile processing department to spend time
observing what goes on during surgery, so they get a sense of the
6 8 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 6
• PAY IT FORWARD OR teams who prep instruments for delivery to central sterile stand a better chance
of getting sets back sooner and more complete.
Pamela
Bevelhymer,
RN,
BSN
