NASHVILLE — Not surprisingly, many Sterile Processing and Distribution professionals exude sincere passion for their performance, mission and importance within their organizations.
More than 1,400 attendees here at the 2017 IAHCSMM Annual Conference & Expo clearly demonstrated that as they roamed the show floor and hotel hallways. In fact, several educational sessions taught them how to defend, protect and reinforce the knowledge, experience and confidence they (should) possess about what they do every day — even as others try to force SPD to atone for the logistics, occupational and process miscues of others who avoid responsibility.
SPD pros learned techniques and tricks to deflect blame strategically, and dismiss bullies tactfully and politely, all while simultaneously working on solutions to the problems. One SPD manager from a surgical hospital perhaps said it best during her presentation: “Don’t let others throw SPD under the bus…If they make the mistake then you have to get them to own it.” She referenced how vendors, nurses and doctors can use SPD as a convenient scapegoat to cover their errors in judgment.
Defend and document the issues — especially when you’re right — to protect the credibility and expertise of the department and the pros that support the operating room and patients every day.
Unfortunately, government and media reports of infectious outbreaks among patients, tied to improperly reprocessed devices and instruments, can hinder that credibility. Of course, an SPD department that adopts and implements the Unique Device Identifier (UDI) codes on products should definitively establish the links between reprocessing and outcomes via track-and-trace capabilities, attendees learned in another session.
Against that stark backdrop, conference speakers stressed the obvious need for thorough cleaning, disinfection and sterilization of devices and instruments used on patients, preferably guided by manufacturers’ detailed instructions for use. To that end, certain working groups strive to develop and establish standardized IFUs, independently validated by third-party laboratories, to reinforce high-quality SPD performance with minimal drama and process inconveniences.
Until then, SPD pros must continue pursuing reprocessing competency as a baseline, and performance improvement rooted in real science as an ongoing objective. This conference exposed attendees to useful tips for effective reprocessing, including proper inspection and leak testing of endoscopic equipment, the type of water, cleaning, disinfecting and sterilizing agents to use and how those agents affect the body. SPD pros also learned about the characteristics and hazards of bioburden left behind somewhere in a patient’s body cavity or “internal plumbing.”
Several sessions exposed device areas missed by reprocessing, including blood, tissue and water droplets in device cavities, crannies and crevasses, and what that material left behind could do to the device or instrument over time and to the patient. Seeing patient photos on giant viewscreens generated audible gasps.
What SPD pros couldn’t see alarmed them, too — from a single strand of seemingly harmless laundry lint to skin cells shed by clinicians in the sterile field to microscopic bacterial retention. All were attacked as organic invaders by a phalanx of white blood cells dispatched by a patient’s immune system. In some cases, this activity morphed the bioburden with catastrophic consequences.
SPD pros learned how these bacteria and other particles behave in a way that should motivate not only SPD, but also doctors, nurses, infection preventionists, supply chain pros and C-suite leaders to understand and act. SPD pros learned how bacteria and residue shield themselves behind organic fortress walls (biofilms) and don biological suits of armor (think Iron Bug) to defend against internal immunity system attacks and external reprocessing materials.
Who would have thought that errant particulate matter expunged from a new filter in the air duct, from the movement of new surgical drapes or the turn of a clinician’s head, for example, could profoundly impact patient outcomes?
SPD does now. They know the science behind these facts and can share that knowledge with clinicians and administrators through reprocessing performance and environmental audits they can conduct. Will those areas listen to SPD’s wisdom?
Rick Dana Barlow | Senior Editor
Rick Dana Barlow is Senior Editor for Healthcare Purchasing News, an Endeavor Business Media publication. He can be reached at [email protected].
