Online community debuts, shows why validated IFUs for SP and quality healthcare delivery

A veteran group of healthcare sterile processing and distribution (SPD) advocates, experts and observers launched a new online community dedicated to exploring and promoting the pursuit and use of validated instructions for use (IFUs) to improve the quality of patient care.

Devices and instruments generally include multiple IFUs, which are step-by-step narratives on how to reprocess these products safely and thoroughly. The challenge? What if the IFUs fall short of meeting those expectations? Who then remains at fault when a patient experiences harm?

Enter #IFUcan, an online community devoted to SPD and related clinical and administrative professionals among providers and product manufacturers, co-founded by a quartet that includes some prominent names you’ve read and seen in trade publications, such as Healthcare Purchasing News, and professional conferences and exhibitions, such as IAHCSMM, AHRMM, AORN and AAMI, among others. They include the following:

·          James Schneiter, retired Founder, Owner and President, America’s Medsource Inc., Lake Forest, IL

·           Ralph Basile, Vice President, Marketing & Regulatory Affairs, Healthmark Industries Company, Inc., Fraser, MI

·           Abed Moiduddin, Vice President, Business Development, Novo Surgical Inc., Oak Brook, IL

·           Rick Dana Barlow, President, Wingfoot Media Inc.; Co-Founder and Executive Director, Bellwether League Foundation; and Senior Editor, Healthcare Purchasing News, Schaumburg, IL 

What can you do on #IFUcan?

·           Read fair, balanced and thought-provoking content on past and current practices and procedures

·           Share your own viewpoints on what you read and on past and current practices and procedures

·           Celebrate and learn from successful examples of IFUs in practices and procedures

·           Explore and discuss how to constructively and proactively handle IFU challenges 

Be sure to sign up at http://www.linkedin.com/showcase/ifucan/, follow the #IFUcan community, gather information on how to improve performance and the patient care quality you help deliver every day, and share your opinions. Please email any comments, ideas and questions you have to [email protected].