ties."
Together they should hash out who's responsible for staying on top
of tasks critical to the smooth functioning of both departments.
• Preference cards. Scrubs techs should update preference cards
"so it's clear what should be included in instrument sets returned to
the OR after reprocessing," says Ms. Maloney.
• Organized trays. Scrub techs should place instruments in correct
trays after use in the OR, so members of the reprocessing team don't
waste time untangling piles of mismatched instruments and hunting
down missing items in order to keep sets intact, says Ms. Maloney.
• Instrument tray checklists. By working off the same checklists,
reprocessing techs can check off items included in sets before they
reprocess trays and scrub techs can make sure sets are complete
when they're returned to the OR.
• OR liaison. Assign an SPD member to serve as OR liaison, says Ms.
Seavey, so the surgical team knows whom to contact with concerns or
special requests. Take that approach a step further by asking SPD
members to serve as coordinators for individual service lines, especial-
ly instrument-heavy specialties like orthopedics, she says. The special-
ty reps would work closely with OR service line leaders to make sure
SPD meets instrument needs.
• Follow the same standards. SPD and OR should follow the same
standards and recommended practices of instrument care and repro-
cessing: AORN standards or AAMI guidelines, but not both, says Ms.
Seavey.
3. Get innovative
Staff at Callahan Eye Hospital came up with a simple solution to let
SPD know when instruments are needed again later in the day. They
D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 6 • O U T PA T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T • 7 1
