Clean is Safe
Surgical Instrument Cleaning and Reprocessing
Cleaning surgical instruments presents a risk to the reprocessing staff. Clean Surgical Instruments are safe to handle.
It is a recognized risk of exposure to unidentified microorganisms that reprocessing personal endure during the decontamination and cleaning of surgical instruments. Our goal is to minimize the amount and degree of reprocessing personal exposure to this risk and provide reprocessed surgical instruments that are clean: safe to handle, safe for patient care, are cleaned, decontaminated reprocessed at the lowest cost. Optimal decontamination cleaning-reprocessing of surgical instruments will secure the prerequisite for disinfecting surgical instruments and/or sterilizing surgical instruments. Typically, Healthcare Facilities manually clean [hand-wash] surgical instruments: with dried on or excessive debris, surgical instruments that are cannulated, surgical instruments with working channels and/or surgical instruments with lumens. Healthcare Facilities also manually clean [hand-wash] surgical instruments, when a surgical instrument washer decontaminators or washer disinfectors is not available. Hand washing surgical instruments places the reprocessing personnel at risk. In the decontamination area, surgical instruments are received that are contaminated with variable amounts of debris and unidentified microorganisms. In the Clean Side reprocessing area, surgical instruments requiring further reprocessing are handled by unprotected reprocessing personnel.
CLEANING SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS BY HAND CAN LEAD TO INJURY AND INCREASED EXPOSURE TO HEPATITIS. THE CDC BELIEVES THAT AS MANY AS 18,000 HEALTH CARE WORKERS PER YEAR MAY BE INFECTED BY THE HBV, AND AS MANY AS 300 DEATHS MAY RESULT ANNUALLY.
Workers at Risk Reprocessing Surgical Instruments Inherent in the manual cleaning-decontamination-reprocessing of surgical instruments is power spraying, splashing, and the creation of contaminated aerosols. The manual cleaning-decontamination-reprocessing of surgical instruments presents the risk of infectious puncture wounds. The handling of each individual surgical instrument device is time consuming, labor intensive, renders limited through-put and has high overhead costs. Exposure is contained by automated surgical instrument washers or washer disinfectors. In the United States, the manufacturers of surgical instrument washers are not approved, by the FDA, to market their products as Washer Disinfectors. However, many of the Surgical Instrument Washers are manufactured to provide the times and temperatures that can effectively deliver disinfected surgical instruments. If it is your preference to have cleaning reprocessing results of a washer disinfector, refer to the Surgical Instrument Washer Specifications for assurance that the times and temperatures available are those you consider to be appropriate for disinfecting surgical instruments. Automated surgical instrument washers or washer disinfectors can safely contain within their chambers the cleaning-decontamination-reprocessing functions, removal of debris, and contaminated aerosols. The batch treatment of reprocessing surgical instruments using automated Surgical Instrument Washer Decontaminators Disinfectors saves time, increases material through-put, improves surgical instrument turnaround times, provides for FTE reduction, and lowers cost for surgical instrument cleaners. It has been demonstrated that a properly designed Surgical Instrument Washer Decontaminator Disinfector, that is used to manufacturer’s specifications, will consistently and repeatedly remove all microorganisms from surgical instruments.
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