SOLVING COLLABORATION CHALLENGES WITH A LOANER MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Central Sterile (CS) professionals often cite lack of effective collaboration with other departments as a major opportunity area in their hospitals. This makes sense because CS departments are so integrated into a hospital’s work flow, they necessarily interact with and support a wide number of other departments…
THE IMPORTANCE OF FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE by Susan Klacik BS, CRCST, ACE, CHL, CIS, FCS Every medical device has its own instructions for use (IFU). In fact, before a medical device can be sold, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires validation testing to demonstrate that the device can be effectively cleaned and…
MANAGING CONSIGNMENTS: 3 BEST PRACTICES There is an unwritten pecking order in most CS departments when it comes to surgical trays. Facility owned trays and instruments are usually tracked and cared for as if they were made of gold (and at some of their replacement prices, it would seem that many of them are!). …
CS MANAGEMENT EFFECTIVENESS: SYSTEMIC EXCELLENCE The previous article in this CS Manager series focused on creating a set of measurements and data points to track your department’s performance. This article builds on that concept by discussing what to do when your department’s performance is not meeting expectations. So you’ve got a problem and you…
CURRENT GUIDELINES FOR PROCESSING FLEXIBLE ENDOSCOPES by Rose Seavey MBA, BS, RN, CNOR, CRCST, CSPDT President/CEO Seavey Healthcare Consulting, LLC Contaminated endoscopes have been a huge topic with the media and the public due to the reports of infection transmission as a result of inadequately processed scopes. Flexible endoscope are arguably the most difficult pieces…
STAFF RETENTION IN SPD: 3 STRATEGIES FOR KEEPING YOUR BEST PEOPLE by Weston “Hank” Balch, CRCST,CIS, CHL As the certification culture continues to gain traction across the Sterile Processing industry, retention of high performing technicians is becoming more and more difficult. Hospital staffing agencies are paying a premium for experienced and credentialed SPD techs, as…
CS MANAGEMENT EFFECTIVENESS: DATA & MEASUREMENT Congratulations—you have achieved management level in your hospital’s CS department! With the obvious benefit of being recognized as a leader by your peers comes the oftentimes difficult work of shouldering the responsibility for the work of a collection of people, not just your own. Easily the most talked…
HOW TO MANAGE YOUR (SALES) REP by Keerthi Kanubaddi Founder & CEO ReadySet Surgical I was first educated about the importance of surgical sterility at 15 years old. I was shadowing an anesthesiologist in the OR and just before the procedure was to begin, I brushed up against a sterile mayo stand holding case critical…
CS MANAGEMENT: FOUR SUREFIRE WAYS TO ENGAGE EMPLOYEES CS Week comes around every year, and it provides a great opportunity to do special things for your staff. Potlucks, after-shift get-togethers, food in the break room, etc. are all fun things to do to celebrate the contribution CS makes to your hospital’s operations. But what about…
MAKING YOUR DEPARTMENT SURVEY READY by Rose Seavey MBA, BS, RN, CNOR, CRCST, CSPDT President/CEO Seavey Healthcare Consulting, LLC Healthcare accreditations surveys, such as those preformed by The Joint Commission (TJC) or The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, focus on safety and quality of patient care. In the last few years, accreditation surveyors have increasingly…