5. Don't overpack. Ideally, you'd load 1 sterilizer with items that
need a half-hour cycle and load another with items that need a 1-hour
cycle. It's not efficient to mix loads in which a battery that only needs
30 minutes is in with a scope that needs an hour. If you have only 1 ster-
ilizer, however, you might be forced to run longer loads throughout the
day. The danger in running mixed loads is overpacking. Yes, you always
want to pack your sterilizer to max capacity per manufacturers' guide-
lines, but not to the point where the sterilant can't reach everything.
6. They'll be ready in 1 hour, right? We get this question a lot in
sterile processing: "I gave you those instruments an hour ago — how
come they're not back yet?" When OR staff hear that VHP cycles are 1
hour or less, they assume we'll get the instruments back to them in 60
4 6 • 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 y 2 0 1 8
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IN THE OR AND SPD
