Surgical Instruments and Sterilization

They spray toxic gases all over it, and then you hear class action lawsuit commercials on the radio telling you you’re entitled to compensation.

Ugh. What kind are we talking…Steam, High level, gravity?

Hospitals will have multiple.

Depending on size and specialty of the ASC, office based practice, or Dental office, they will at least have a countertop machine up to 1 or more larger sized autoclaves.

If the hospital has a steam system and the steam system goes down, then all autoclaves will have to be tested and cycled when the steam comes back up. A cycle of instruments can take up to 45 minutes to sterilize, then another 45 minutes to cool, so you’re looking at a 2 hr turn, that’s if the ladies in Sterile Processing like you.

You forgot Dr. Tichenor's Antiseptic. That shite should kill any germs around.

Short answer is they are manually washed by hand to remove gross contaminants (pieces parts), then are run through a washer (much like a powerful dishwasher) using high level disinfectant chemicals, then high pressure/temperature steam sterilization (autoclaves).

Most facilities would have several washers and sterilizers. Instruments which cannot tolerate high pressure/temps are sterilized in another machine which uses a “chemical plasma cloud”. They should have a few of these as well.

There are also ultrasonic cleaners for delicate instruments.

This entire cycle including cooling time takes 4-5 hours. Adequate inventory of instruments and sets should allow for backups, but depending on the types of cases scheduled on a given day, and financial constraints that may not always be possible.

We have two steam autoclaves so if one goes down we are still in business. We also keep a 3rd that's older in storage just in case

prob a speed queen dishwasher

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I know exactly which facility you're talking about. My wife (no pics) was venting to me about it yesterday.

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They're nice there. They needed to do a procedure on my FIL but could not until today due to that issue.

Are they one of the many hospitals that have been boutght out by PEG?

I don't think it was PEG, but the hospital I'm referring to was bought out by a different private equity firm. They purchased it from a previous private equity firm that ran into the ground and are attempting to build it back up.

They are now owned by HSA i believe.

Time
Temperature
Pressure

One must meet all three criteria to meet sterilization standards. There are a number of machines that do this, from quite large Autoclaves to countertop units. Then you have gravity fed and then the class B sterilizers.

But before even getting to an autoclave you need to sanitize first and that is where ideally you have mechanical processes rather than hand scrubbing which leaves the HCP vulnerable to stick injuries.