Cleaning Surgical Instruments can be safe for the Reprocessing Staff. Cleaning cannulated surgical instruments presents a risk to the Reprocessing Staff.
Summary: It is a recognized risk of exposure to unidentified microorganisms that reprocessing personal endure during the decontamination, reprocessing, 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 INCREAESED EXPOSURE TO HERPATITIS.1 T HE 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.”2
Workers at Risk Reprocessing Cleaning 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.3
Exposure is Safely Contained
Surgical Instrument Washer Disinfectors
In the United States 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 produce 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 Washer Decontaminator 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. 7 8 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. 9 10
Surgical Instrument Washer Decontaminators Disinfectors should be used in accordance with the manufacturer’s direction for use, to secure the most consistent and efficacious results. Worker safety and reprocessing efficacy can be compromised by violating the manufacturer’s recommendations. Examples of such recommendations are: Keeping the cannulated surgical instrument working chambers and lumens exposed during cleaning-reprocessing and the use of purified water final rinses.
A Clean Surgical Instrument Device is Safe to Handle 11
It is critical that devices are cleaned properly to secure the safety of reprocessing workers in the Clean Area. During the steps of inspection, sorting and packaging of devices, the unprotected reprocessing personnel are repeatedly at risk from a surgical instrument that has remained contaminated with microorganisms.
Within the implementation of the Universal Surgical Instrument Reprocessing Decontamination Precautions, it is our goal to eliminate exposure and reduce the risk to Reprocessing personnel whenever possible.
Clean is Safe Conclusion
The use of proper hand washing surgical instrument reprocessing decontamination methods can render surgical instruments that are clean, but requires the continual exposure of the Reprocessing Staff to contaminated surgical instruments. The Reprocessing Staff performance is influenced by skill level, knowledge and work load. This may impact the efficacy of the process. The use of a properly designed surgical instrument washer decontaminator disinfector reduces the: overhead cost of reprocessing, risks to the Reprocessing Staff and provides consistence removal of all microorganisms from soiled surgical instruments. Once a surgical instrument is clean, it is then safe for further reprocessing and handling. Proper cleaning is the prerequisite for disinfecting and/or sterilizing surgical instruments. Optimal cleaning can render surgical instruments that, at the end of decontamination, cleaning, and reprocessing, are sterile.
John Temple
Product Development
Washer Decontaminators Washer Disinfectors
Racks for cleaning cannulated surgical instruments inside and out.
low initial cost Ultrasonic Cleaning Surgical Instruments
lower Ultrasonic Cleaning cost per cycle
higher Ultrasonic Cleaning throughput capacity
reduced labor and consumable expenses for Cleaning Instruments
rapid heating to reach optimal final rinse, and drying temperatures
high efficiency pump delivers rapid Ultrasonic Cleaning turnaround
Surgical Instrument Detergent - 32 ounce easy FOAM-it
32 ounces of the easy FOAM-it delivers 64 to 128 gallons of Surgical Instrument Detergent Cleaner.
Surgical Instrument Cleaners - 4 gallons / case
1 gallon of Surgical Instrument Detergent Cleaner delivers 512 gallons of Surgical Instrument Detergent.
The Eye Surgical Instrument Detergent Enzyme Cleaner is packaged as:
Order #, Description, Volume of Surgical Instrument Detergent Cleaner Concentrate.
UPS-1, Surgical Instrument Detergent 1 gallon jugs 4 per case
UPS-5, Surgical Instrument Detergent - 5 gallon jug
UPS-15, Surgical Instrument Detergent - 15 gallon jug
UPS-30, Surgical Instrument Detergent - 30 gallon jug
UPS-55, Surgical Instrument Detergent - 55 gallon jug
The recommended dilution rate is .25 to .5 ounces of the surgical instrument detergent per gallon of diluent depending on the level of bioburden, encrustation and surgical instrument stains.
Pre wash Cleaner.
Eye Surgical Instrument Detergent residue free Cleaners.
The Eye Surgical Instrument Detergent Cleaner Enzymes render residue free Eye Surgical Instruments. The Eye Surgical Instrument Detergent Cleaner Enzymes have proven to be effective for rapidly removing all forms of bioburden while lowering the costs for cleaning surgical instruments. The Universal Processing Solution is also a no foaming Ultrasonic Surgical Instrument Cleaner Solution.
The Surgical Instrument Detergent Cleaner was originally developed for cleaning eye surgical instruments but has proven to be effective for the most difficult surgical instrument and endoscope cleaning challenges.
The Surgical Instrument Detergent Cleaner Enzymes are highly concentrated to secure fast and effective cleaning.
The Surgical Instrument Detergent Cleaner Enzymes replace products:
- surgical instrument detergent cleaners,
- surgical instrument detergent cleaning chemicals,
- surgical instrument detergent stain removers,
- surgical instrument detergent surface conditioners, and
- surgical instrument lubricants.
The Surgical Instrument Detergent Cleaner Enzymes are for use as:
- hand washing surgical instrument detergents,
- washer sterilizer detergents,
- surgical instrument washer detergents, and
- ultrasonic surgical instrument cleaner detergents.
The Eye Surgical Instrument Detergent Cleaner Enzymes render residue free Eye Surgical Instruments. The Eye Surgical Instrument Detergent Cleaner Enzymes have proven to be effective for rapidly removing all forms of bioburden while lowering the costs for cleaning surgical instruments. The Universal Processing Solution is also a no foaming Ultrasonic Surgical Instrument Cleaner Solution.
The Surgical Instrument Detergent Cleaner was originally developed for cleaning eye surgical instruments but has proven to be effective for the most difficult surgical instrument and endoscope cleaning challenges.
The Surgical Instrument Detergent Cleaner Enzymes are highly concentrated to secure fast and effective cleaning.
