Surgical reprocessing

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Hi there,

I have a quick question. We are a large Level 1 Trauma with

22 OR. We are pretty busy with on average 45 cases a day.

And I was just wondering for those who work in a similar size

hospital - do you guys have surgical reprocessing issues? I mean

incomplete trays, lost instruments, lost consignment trays, trays

sent unsterile and stuff like that?

I'm sure there is a better way to things and I'm looking for one.

Also, if anyone works in SRP/SPD departments what % of the instrument

is lost/broken every year?

Thanks

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1. Make sure central processing employees initial every tray they process. That way, if it was done wrong, you can find out who screwed up.

2. If things still do not improve, have 2 employees initial every tray. This will force them to double check every tray.

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I'm sorry to say that any place there are intruments there are problems with instruments! I agree with Sandra about the accountability factor, having the CSS techs sign the sheets. Another thing- does your facility using intrument tracking software? There are various systems (my hospital uses SPM) and all the intruments trays are sets are barcoded so that they can be tracked. Now this has not totally eliminated issues, but it does help.

Another thing, if you have trays that are esecially problematic (one with a lot of specialty instruments, etc) it was helpful for our OR to have an OR person from that particular service to do a brief inservice for the CSS staff to go over the instruments and stress how important complete trays are to patient care. I think many CSS people don't really realize what an important role they play in patient care, for some people helping them to understand the importance of their role is a motivator.

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hi there,

everything you guys mentioned is done...If you ask about signing

trays..they do that, but also put label "missing"....and technically

they off the hook.

We have full time reps there for ortho and neuro but still missing drill bits

and wrong screws...

tray tracking system is there too. Still somebody scanned them out and

didn't scan them in...or it's unique tray with a hole...

I mean we are dealing with it and I guess it's not that bad compare to other

Level 1 centers that actually outsourced their SRP departments to instrument

companies...

I just think that there is a better way and I'm looking for it!

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Are the employees who build incomplete trays talked to?

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

Part of our CPD training is OR observation, and another week-long observation once a year as an 'inservice.' It never fails, that at least one time within the week, there's an incident where the indicator strip is missing, instruments are 'lost', etc. Which then gives the observer a look at why doing their job correctly is vital, and what happens when they don't. This helped tremendously.

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We are a small OR 6 rooms, cysto and endolab. We do 20 - 30 cases a day. We work very closely with our CPD. We have 2 -3 contact people in the OR that CPD contacts about broken or missing instruments or any other issues. (As soon as an instument is missing, we are called so perhaps we can locate it.) When they get swamped, we go and help assemble trays, seal peel packs, wrap instruments etc. They initial each tray and mark with an orange tag any tray that is missing an instrument. One person in CPD is in charge of replacement and repair of instruments. If we have an instrument that is broken or not working correctly, we put it in a zip lock bag with a note to alert them to the problem.

The only time that we seem to have issues now is when there is new staff training both in the OR and

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