Sterile Processing Case Study (ANSWERED)

QUESTION

ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS

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Sterile Processing Case Studies Project

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of the case study is to allow the student to analyze information retained over the duration of the sterile processing program and apply that knowledge obtained to provide
specific solutions to common issues that may occur within the sterile processing department.

CASE STUDY INSTRUCTIONS

1.  Decontamination Principles: Dr. Sarmiento is a well-known neurosurgeon at Baptist Medical Center. He is known for working on complex cases that involve the spine and other neurological tissues. This past week, his private scrub tech has discovered that dirty neurological instruments have made it into the OR. The Choose two of the four topics as listed below: Decontamination Principles, Sterilization Methods,Preparation of Medical Equipment and Supplies, and Inventory Control and Distribution Systems.
   Once the two case studies are chosen, answer the questions using your own vocabulary and address
   the conflicts or issues with solutions specific to your topics of choice. To fulfill the requirements of
   this case studies project, you must employ research techniques. You can utilize your text or other
   credible sources from the internet to build a thorough paper that contains at least six main ideas with
   supporting details regarding the topic chosen and a minimum of three credible references. The paper
   must be written in APA format with an extensive introduction, body, and concluding statement per
   case study. Minimum of four pages, double-spaced excluding title and reference pages per case
   study. Please refer to the rubric regarding specific grading criteria.
   Now that you understand the basic goals of this project, let’s get started.

CASE STUDY SCENARIO

Technician consults with the patient care manager of
surgical services because the incident has been reoccurring over the past few months. With this
knowledge, respond to the following questions:
What issue(s) have occurred, and what may be the cause of these errors?
What other special precautions may the sterile processing tech need to take with instruments
exposed to neurological tissues?
What might the sterile processing department have to do to resolve this issue?
Thoroughly explain the decontamination process. What extra efforts should be made to ensure
that clean instruments are delivered to the surgical suite?
 HOMEWORK
2. Sterilization Methods: Kristine, a technician in the sterile processing department, has noticed
that after the sterilization of surgical equipment and supplies that at least two out of every four
loads sterilized for the day have been moist. She has consulted with her supervisor on effective
ways in which she could troubleshoot the concerns with wet loads, because it has now affected
the department’s work efficiency and quality control.
Define a wet pack.
Define a wet load.
Why might the loads be wet?
What solutions can Kristine apply to ensure that the processed instrument sets aren’t moist?
Discuss how this issue can affect both the operating room and the sterile processing
department. How should Kristine handle the wet packages to ensure quality control?
3. Preparation of Medical Equipment and Supplies: Over the last month, the operating room has
received rigid containers without filters, assembled instrumentation such as Poole suction
devices in sterilized sets, and closed versus open packaged and processed instruments on the
stringer and within the instrument sets.
Discuss in detail how these occurrences can impact safe and efficient patient care.
Discuss the instrument preparation process. What can the sterile processing technician do to
ensure that all items are prepared and packaged correctly?
How does this situation impact the operating room staff?
4. Inventory Control and Distribution: The sterile processing department at Hershey-Chocolate
Medical Center has an excessive amount of inventory. Management has decided to restructure
the inventory system used in their facility and has asked you to research at minimum four
different inventory systems that may help with the safe and efficient distribution of medical
supplies and is also cost-effective.
What inventory system may work well for their department? Discuss at least four types of
inventory systems and how each could initiate a more controlled environment of inventory for
the facility.
How can distribution be affected by excessive inventory?
Please review the following rubric to see how you will be graded for this final project. Ensure that all
of these areas are covered to ensure the best achievable score.
Length/Formatting Instructions
Length 300 Words
Font 12 point, Calibri Font, no more than 1″ margins
Program/File
Type
Submit in Word
Attachments Should be pasted into the Word document if possible.
Referencing
system
APA referencing system is necessary in assignments, especially material copied
from the internet.
For examples of correct citations, visit the following links:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
(http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/)
File Name
Sterile Processing Case Studies Project

ANSWER

CASE STUDY 1

Sterilization Methods

Introduction

The provision of clean and safe sterile equipment for use in the surgical rooms largely depends on the healthcare organization’s sterilization method.  Sterilization technicians should conduct the cleaning, disinfection, and sterilization of surgical instruments within the central processing unit to control quality and maintain the condition of such equipment.  The main objective of sterilizing surgical equipment is to eliminate the infection of patients while reducing the risks to surgical personnel and sustaining the value of the pieces of equipment being sterilized. Performing continuous sterilization of surgical equipment needs a sophisticated procedure that portrays the technician’s level of competence and appropriate sterilizing methods. Surgical equipment is usually pre-rinsed or pre-soaked to avoid drying of tissues and blood.  This case study explores issues of the sterilization process such as wet pack and wet load and methods applied to ensure efficient sterilization of surgical equipment.

A wet pack refers to the availability of moisture inside or outside surgical equipment after sterilization. Moist packs require complete reprocessing, and care should be undertaken to block excess condensation from taking place. In case wet packs are realized in user points like the operating rooms, such equipment should not be utilized in the surgical process. Moist packs can be present in various locations (Seavey, 2016). They can be present in the storage units, sterilizers, surgical equipment, or case carts. In most cases, wet packs are recognized trays containing surgical instruments that have been opened. Wet packs can significant adverse effects and threaten patient safety and health care.

A wet load refers to moisture in multiple packages, and hence they should not be used to perform surgical procedures.  Wet loads are no safe to be used in surgical processes as they threaten patient’s safety and increases the chances of contamination and spread of infections. Moisture is considered to make a leeway for microorganisms to relocate from the outer part of the sterilized load to the internal part. When a wet pack touches a sterilized surface, it contaminates the area.

Wet loads are contributed by several elements around the sterile processing unit and call for sophisticated care in handling and cleaning surgical instruments. The primary causes of wet loads are clinical errors associated with the technician’s inability to dry the equipment before packaging them.  Other sources of clinical errors are sterilization packaging, cycle, and load mistakes.  Sterilization packaging mistakes comprise activities whereby the technician loosely or tightly wrap the package,  incorrect double-pouching of the packages, or uses wraps not meant for the intended purpose, applying improper sterilization packaging.  The load errors comprise packages that are wrongly stacked and wrong loading or overloading of the autoclave. Stocking packages that block air elimination use paper-plastic wraps that do not accelerate drying and placing equipment in a   manner that does not accelerate the moisture drainage, such as those with concave surfaces and ones with lumens like handpieces (Sreekumar et al., 2018). Cycle errors entail choosing an irrelevant autoclave cycle that disrupts the drying process or choosing a drying period that matches the manufacturer’s instructions for use and is inefficient.  Additionally, unloading packages from the autoclave before the required cool-down time has been completed can result in moisture entering the packages.  Once the packages have been offloaded from the autoclave and allowed to cool down, the packages should not be put in solid or cool surroundings, leading to the formation of moisture on the pack.

Kristine can prevent wet packs and loads by taking careful note of the guidelines and regulations for equipment reprocessing.  Reprocessing devices should show their intended objective, validity and must be tested based on local regulations. Additionally, the position of paper plastic should be placed in a manner that prevents condensation and overloading. Finally, the manufacturers’ guidelines about the sterilization process must be followed carefully.

The issue of wet packs and wet loads can affect both the sterile processing unit and operating room by causing contamination of patient equipment and surfaces hence causing infections.  Wet packages also increase the workloads of technicians and can cancel or delay medical procedures (Crisafulli, 2021).  The best way of handling wet packages for quality control is reprocessing. The wet packages are contaminated and cannot be utilized in any surgical procedure before they are reprocessed. However, the process of reprocessing is more tedious than the initial cleaning, packaging, and sterilization of equipment because they must be unpackaged and repackaged before sterilizing.

Conclusion

Sterilization methods play the most critical role in promoting patient safety and reducing infections among patients and hospital staff.  The sterilization process is more critical in operating rooms, and surgeons and nurses require high sterile equipment prompted by the nature of these rooms.  Successful sterilization depends on strict adherence to stipulated guidelines that reduce wet packs and loads and overall contamination of sterile equipment. Technicians within the sterile processing units should also follow manufacturers’ recommendations and guidelines to reduce human errors that affect the sterilization process.

References

Crisafulli, J. (2021). Investigation of Sterilizers Causing Wet Loads Through Root Cause Analysis. Journal of Clinical Engineering, 46(2), 89-93.

Seavey, R. (2016). Troubleshooting failed sterilization loads: Process failures and wet packs/loads. American journal of infection control, 44(5), e29-e34.

Sreekumar, S., Varghese, K., Abraham, J. P., & Jaysa, J. J. (2018). An in vitro evaluation of the efficiency of various disinfection and sterilization methods to decontaminate dental handpieces. Journal of Dental Research and Review, 5(2), 50.

CASE STUDY 2

Inventory Control and Distribution

Introduction

The sterile processing department in any health care organization plays a crucial role in ensuring patient safety through the sterilization of medical equipment that allows medical professionals to conduct surgical procedures. Similarly, the inventory of sterile equipment is a significant area of efficient health care technology management(HTM). Technology is a fundamental element within the sterile processing department as it allows professionals to conduct safe surgical procedures within a suitably clean environment using well-cleaned and sterilized equipment. Quality inventory management and distribution ensure that sterile devices are frequently checked and updated to accurately portray the sterile department’s status. For Hershey-Chocolate Health Care facility to restructure its inventory system, it is essential to identify different types of inventory systems. This paper explores the types of inventory systems that can be utilized to relieve excessive inventory within the sterile processing unit to achieve a cost-effective, efficient and safe distribution of health care supplies.

The first type of inventory system that Hershey-Chocolate Health care facility should consider is the periodic inventory system. The system entails the physical counting of inventory regularly. As a result, the system is highly dependent on either barcodes mounted with scanners or checklists for manual counting. The system does not conduct daily inventory monitoring; instead, it will enable the facility to recognize the initial and final inventory units within a specific period (Chołodowicz & Orłowski, 2016).  For a periodic inventory system, an employee undertakes a physical count of every piece of inventory equipment, usually at specified intervals such as quarterly, semi-yearly, or yearly basis. The amount of each inventory is recorded, either manually on a checklist or in a computerized database. The registered units are compared with those for the previous period to establish the variation in the inventory. The periodic system develops an inventory accounting depending on the initial and final inventory. The initial inventory is usually taken as the final inventory of the previous counting period at every accounting period. Undertaking a count of equipment generates the final inventory for a specific period. It is important to note that with a periodic inventory system, the equipment units are continuously updated as more units are incorporated into the inventory across the entire period.

The second type of inventory system is Perpetual. As the name suggests, the counting of inventories is a continuous process, and the central system is updated once a piece of equipment enters or is thrown out of the facility.  It is the most complex system that provides actual-time information about organizational inventories (Khan, Faisal & Omar Abdullah Al Aboud, 2018). The central system continuously updates the inventory databases, and adjustments are made every time a change of inventory takes place. It is also a type of inventory system that can employ barcode scanners of RFID tags to conduct an automatic counting of the inventories. Suppose the organization employs the perpetual inventory system. In that case, it will have to conduct a continuous update of the inventory records and incorporate relevant adjustments in the inventory account when a piece of medical equipment is purchased, sold, or scrapped.  Sometimes the perpetual system is regarded as the most effective since it provides up-to-date information about organizational inventory and efficient counting of limited amounts of physical inventory.

The third type of inventory system is the barcode inventory system that employs barcode technology to generate a more reliable and effective inventory, unlike manual procedures. When this system is operated as part of a general inventory management system, it automatically updates the inventory units whenever an employee scans the items using a mobile phone or barcode scanner (Vamsi et al., 2020). There are several advantages of employing the barcode inventory in managing and maintaining inventories in different organizations. The first is that the system maintains an accurate and reliable record of every inventory activity and avails the necessary information any time the management wants it. Second, the system is useful in alleviating human and time-consuming errors associated with manual or paperwork systems. Second, the system facilitates the transfer of inventory within the organization’s storage facilities and across various locations without the risks of losing that equipment. Third, the system can document transactional histories and easily identify the lowest units and reorganize the available quantities.

The fourth type of inventory system is the Frequency Identification (RFID) system. It is considered the most current and effective system that applies active and passive technology to maintain and control movements of organizational inventories. Active RFID invention utilizes immovable tag scanners throughout the storage facility; RFID tags are passed through a scanner, and the movement is reflected in the inventory control software (Doss, Trujillo-Rasua & Piramuthu, 2020). Because of this, active RFID is considered the most efficient for organizations that need accurate and most current inventory control or where issues of security require a top priority. On the other hand, passive RFID invention necessitates handheld scanners to track the relocation of inventories. Once the scanner has captured a tag, the information is reflected in the organization’s central inventory control software. RFID invention has a scanning limit of about 300 feet for active technology and 40 feet for passive technology.  The RFID system has its shortcomings. First, the cost of acquiring RFID tags is high compared to the cost of barcode scanners, and hence they are usually fit to be used in high-value goods. Second, RFID is considered to have interference problems, particularly when tags are employed in physical settings with many liquids and metals. Third, it is costly for an organization to restructure its inventory, and the fact that suppliers and transportation agencies should as well have the device. Similarly, RFID tags can store more information in comparison to barcode scanners, which implies that RFID systems and software servers can be overloaded with too much information.

For Hershey-Chocolate Health care facility to choose the best inventory system, it should first consider the most suitable between the periodic and perpetual inventory system and then selecting between the barcode and RFID system to use alongside the main inventory system.  Choosing either the barcode or the RFID system to work alongside the main inventory management system will allow the facility to control the inventory through increased scanning accuracy, monitoring, documentation, and reporting inventory relocation.

The distribution of medical equipment is significantly affected by excessive inventory. Excessive inventory implies that the department is purchasing more equipment than the amount required to meet the projected demand. It, therefore, results in multiple operational issues and financial limitations, which in turn affects the distribution process. The reason for excessive inventory at the sterile processing unit is probably because more stock purchasing allows the department to conduct emergency surgeries and reduce the risk of equipment running out during critical surgical procedures.  Excessive inventory affects the distribution process because it consumes a high proportion of working capital (Bendig, Brettel & Downar, 2018). Without sufficient cash flow, the organization will face the risk of delaying the distribution process. Second, excessive inventory increases the cost of managing and tracking the inventory hence delaying the distribution process. Excess inventory requires a more extensive storage facility and more workload for storekeepers, which increases cost in the long run.

Conclusion

The effectiveness of different inventory systems discussed above is highly dependent on the type and scale of the organization. Additionally, it depends on the cost of the system and the availability of capital within the organization. I believe the best inventory system that the Hershey-Chocolate Health care facility can utilize is the perpetual inventory system since it entails continuous updates of the inventory hence can provide accurate and reliable information about the inventory.  Additionally, the system is suitable for large scale organizations that operate with several departments, and Hershey-Chocolate Health organization can efficiently utilize this type of inventory system.  Furthermore, the organization can also choose the barcode scanner system to utilize alongside the perpetual system as it improves the efficiency of the entire inventory system.

References

Bendig, D., Brettel, M., & Downar, B. (2018). Inventory component volatility and its relation to returns. International Journal of Production Economics, 200, 37-49.

Chołodowicz, E., & Orłowski, P. (2016). Comparison of a perpetual and PD inventory control system with Smith Predictor and different shipping delays using criteria optimization and SPEA2. Pomiary Automatyka Robotyka, 20.

Doss, R., Trujillo-Rasua, R., & Piramuthu, S. (2020). Secure attribute-based search in RFID-based inventory control systems: decision Support Systems, 132, 113270.

Khan, A., Faisal, S., & Omar Abdullah Al Aboud, D. (2018). An Analysis of Optimal Inventory Accounting Models-Pros and Cons. European Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance Research, 6(3), 65-77.

Vamsi, A. M., Deepalakshmi, P., Nagaraj, P., Awasthi, A., & Raj, A. (2020). IoT based autonomous inventory management for warehouses. In EAI International Conference on Big Data Innovation for Sustainable Cognitive Computing (pp. 371-376). Springer, Cham.

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