3 Frustrations Every Sterile Processing Department Faces Daily

There is no shortage of complaints regarding the Operating Room team breezing into SPD with justified frustrations. The complaints range in severity from missing instruments and indicators to mislabeled sets and, in worst-case scenarios, bioburden in trays and malfunctioning devices.

Regardless of how we spin the challenges, they aren’t good. No one wants to have someone breathing down their neck and the OR team doesn’t want to deal with case delays and angry surgeons.

This edition of our newsletter will cover three common pain points and how proper reporting can make reporting issues simple and provide visibility to allow for swift remediation.?

1.?Missing Items

Frustration levels are heightened when items are missing from sets. This becomes an issue for the OR team and SP regarding set assembly. Often there is a missing link in communication regarding an item missing from assembly, reordering instrumentation or required quantities for specific sets.

With Surgio SPD, it is easy to document all trays that are lacking instruments & what parts specifically are missing. These instruments are then categorized by item group (implant, instrument, etc.) and show all items marked as missing during assembly. This information can be accessed from the tray or part level, creating an easier way to share information with leadership, reorder instruments and communicate with vendors.

2. Proactive Maintenance Rotations

?The name of the game in SP is to be proactive versus reactive.

Being reactive is neither great for our patients, nor is it beneficial for facilitating positive working environment.

Here are three considerations to keep in mind when it comes to how you are rotating your instrumentation for proactive maintenance

?1. Does your Preventative Maintenance Service meet the demands of your caseload??

2. ?Are sets being rotated FIFO?? Was set 1 of 5 used more than 2-5?

3. Are you servicing trays too frequently?? Over sharpening/shortening the life of the instrument.

With Surgio SPD, we know how pivotal refurbishment rotations are.

Trays can all be given a refurbishment limit to ensure they are properly maintained. A tray’s cycle limit is decremented every time it goes through assembly. This report shows where all trays stand as it relates to their limits. It is an easy way to access information on the trays that have exceeded their limit and need to be sent out for repair.

3. Hospital-owned tray issues

?Having a clear understanding and documentation surrounding your facility-owned sets is key to address the areas where process improvement is necessary.

?Today, issues are probably an amalgamation of a pile of Post-Its, Bowie Dick cards, and gown tie papers with chicken scratch “hate notes” stacked on the supervisor's desk.

With statements like “No indicator AGAIN” or “The 30-degree scope was labeled 0 degrees, case delay, Arthro Set 4,” and if we are lucky, some case details and date are on the note, but would that really make a difference? There are only so many “We’ll talk to our staff about it” and “I’m so sorry that happened” statements that can be made before people become irritated and irate and start to label SP as “incompetent.” We all know this isn’t the case, but the label happens when issues are reoccurring repeatedly without remedy.

With Surgio SPD, you can easily view all tray issues at a single glance. You can easily filter to see which errors have been reported by the OR, which issues categories are most common etc.

Whether it’s missing instruments, tray refurbishments, or issues with hospital-owned trays we know you are tired of not having an efficient process to fix the problems.

We also know you are tired of being mislabeled as a department that isn’t helpful when you’re working your tails off.

There is a better way to keep track of these challenging areas in your SPD. Surgio can help you improve your workflow and communication and give you the information to justify your needs with reporting that is simple and makes sense.

You take your free test drive or book a demo today and stop the chaotic reactive cycle in your facility.