Award-winning CPD posits, reflects bright outlook

Earning the 2019 SPD Department of the Year title from Healthcare Purchasing News by no means represents an end game for the Central Processing Department team at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).

In fact, CPD has plenty on the docket beyond day-to-day customer service and operations to keep them busy enough to “always be one step ahead to ensure we ca be as nimble as possible to change,” according to Robert Silverstein, Senior Director, Central Processing and High-Level Disinfection/Sterilization. What are the projects? 

New Hospital, New CPD – CHOP is building a new hospital in King of Prussia (KOP), PA, and they have finalized a design for the new CPD at that facility that separates the various functions of high-level disinfection to allow for clear delineation of the type of work being performed. 

But wait, isn’t CHOP working to centralize HLD/S at the main campus’ CPD? Yes, and no. 

“Not all HLDS is performed at CHOP in Philadelphia,” Silverstein said. “We have four surgery centers that have the full complement of sterile processing modalities. Currently, one of our surgery centers is located in KOP on the site where we are building the new hospital. Since this will be a comprehensive inpatient hospital with several ORs, we are planning on incorporating a CPD area to support HLD/S for this site.” Further, HLD/S processes will be standardized across the two CPD sites. 

Centralized Scope Processing – Currently, CPD reprocesses scopes at several locations on CHOP’s main campus in Philadelphia, and much of the work is performed by non-CPD employees, Silverstein indicated. These employees work in Respiratory, GI and several outpatient clinics. “We are in the process of designing a centralized scope center that will be staffed by CPD and will allow us to continue our consolidation efforts as well as re-purpose the spaces where scope reprocessing is performed,” he said. 

Voice-Enabled Reprocessing Assistant (VERA) – In partnership with the CHOP Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Silverstein’s team is working on a prototype that utilizes voice enabled technology to allow staff to reliably follow step-by-step manufacturer’s reprocessing instructions for cleaning and high-level disinfection of endoscopes. VERA would provide the framework for voice-activated navigation of a visual feedback interface consisting of sequential steps: Text and diagrams, images or video demonstrations, according to Silverstein. CPD currently relies on OneSource to access manufacturer instructions-for-use. 

Epic Scope Tracking – To CPD, that first word could serve as both an adjective and a proper noun. Historically, CPD staff linked scopes to patients prior to the procedures being performed. CPD leadership had an idea to treat scopes like other surgical items – such as tissue, implants, etc. – and proposed that the clinicians document the exact scope used in the patient’s medical record, Silverstein indicated. Now they plan to link it to CHOP’s electronic medical record from Epic. “After many months of learning the clinical workflows and identifying a way in Epic to make it as efficient as possible for clinical documentation, we will be kicking off a pilot in the OR in the spring to begin tracking scope serial numbers in a specific, reportable field in Epic,” Silverstein told HPN. “We are definitely excited about this work! When I first joined CPD I looked at how much manual effort we put into some of the work performed. As a leader, I believe a major responsibility of mine is to ensure our staff is practicing to the full extent of their education and training. A key piece of this is automating manual processes as much as possible. My vision is to view scopes as we do other items in procedures that require formal documentation. Having clinicians utilizing Epic to document a scope was used provides a ton of value in a standardized, reportable way that is consistent across CHOP. It will be very powerful to pull up a dashboard and quickly see how many scopes were used, the patients on whom they were used, and how quickly we were able to begin reprocessing the scope after a procedure ends.”