how a soiled instru-
ment, for example,
should be transport-
ed to sterile process-
ing.
"I am the informer,
not the enforcer,"
says Ms. Reese, the
infection prevention-
ist at St. Joseph's
Hospital in
Lexington, Ky.
Ms. Reese takes
her bible with her
when she does her
monthly rounds for
on-site surveillance, checking that instruments are processed at bed-
side before they exit the threshold of the procedure room and audit-
ing case carts to make sure all instruments are opened and unhinged.
With recent focus shifting to bedside practice regarding instrument
processing and handling of soiled instruments, investigations of con-
taminated instruments are being expanded beyond the limited focus
of sterile processing, says Ms. Reese. Tools such as the Booster Pack
that highlight the immediate point-of-use cleaning necessary to ensure
sterilization or high-level disinfection of instruments are a critical part
of preventing breakdowns in the life cycle of surgical instrument
reprocessing. For infection preventionists, this means greater confi-
dence as they observe OR staff handling instruments and ensure each
step in the cleaning process is followed appropriately, says Ms. Reese.
These types of checklists also safeguard that instrument repro-
3 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 • J U N E 2 0 1 8
• BIBLE STUDY At left, Natasha Reese, MT (ASCP) CM, infection preventionist at St.
Joseph's Hospital in Lexington, Ky., confers with a colleague about the "High-Level
Disinfection and Sterilization Booster Pack."
Natasha
Reese,
MT
(ASCP)
CM
