Sterile Processing in Healthcare Facilities: Preparing for Accreditation Surveys

Abstract

Sterile processing departments are a renewed focus of accreditation organizations and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), thanks to a country-wide initiative to eliminate preventable healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and media attention on outbreaks related to the improper cleaning, disinfection, and/or sterilization of instruments, equipment or devices. In this age of unannounced visits, a sterile processing department needs to be in a constant state of readiness for an accreditation survey. It is absolutely necessary to be aware of all the accreditation standards, recommended practices, evidence-based guidelines, and best practices that will impact your sterile processing practices— whether in a teaching or community hospital, ambulatory surgery center, or the office-based setting.Audience: This book should be part of the toolkit of all novice and experienced sterile processing managers, infection preventionists, biomedical engineers, and risk managers for everyday use. There is excellent coverage of all the relevant accreditation standards, evidence-based guidelines from a variety of professional organizations, risk reduction tools, and a sample audit tool is also provided.Features: One of the key features of the book is the annexes. The annexes condense all the applicable Joint Commission standards related to the Environment of Care, Infection Prevention and Control, Human Resources, and Leadership that apply to sterile processing department in hospitals and ambulatory care facilities. The CMS Infection Survey Worksheet is a very thorough and useful tool to assess all infection prevention and related practices in the ambulatory healthcare facilities setting, and is also useful in the hospital and office-based practice setting. Author Rose Seavey has cleverly correlated the key provision of ANSI/ AAMI ST79 to the pertinent Joint Commission standards. Healthcare is all about acronyms, and the author has thought about that and has included a definitions and abbreviations section in the book. The bibliography is complete with all the references you will need for more details.Assessment: This is a user-friendly and easy-to-read book, providing all the information you need at your fingertips to ensure ongoing accreditation preparation and maintain a quality program that ensures patient safety. You will not want to skip a single chapter. The content is well organized and succinct with everything you need to develop a quality program in all sterile processing department settings. I know that there will be many sterile processing department managers breathing a sigh of relief to have everything they need to ensure and maintain compliance at their fingertips.