Weston “Hank” Balch Senior Principal Consultant Beyond Clean Consulting Preparing to pass accreditation surveys for your Sterile Processing department is never an easy feat. Even though surpassing the standards of infection control and safety is our constant goal — regardless if there are surveyors on-site or not — there is something really stressful and anxiety-producing…
SPD and Supply Chain – Aligned at Last? ReadySet Surgical Staff Writers For most matters, there is an inherent conflict between the Sterile Processing Department (SPD) management and hospital Supply Chain management. Fairly or unfairly, Supply Chain is often branded as the people who say, ‘no’ to requests. Plenty of stories exist about SPD professionals doing…
By Weston “Hank” Balch, BS, MDiv, CRCST, CER, CIS, CHL In recent years there has been a lot of buzz related to the various sterilization packaging methods now on the market, from disposable blue wrap, to traditional rigid containers, and the ONE TRAY sterilization system. Along with the buzz, we’ve seen white papers, marketing campaigns,…
By Rose Seavey, MBA, BS, RN, CNOR, CRCST, CSPDT Technological advancements in the healthcare field are critically important, as they can both lengthen and improve quality of life. Despite the potentially significant benefits of implementing new advancements immediately, healthcare facilities often delay implementation as they await updated standards and subsequently manufacturer’s Instructions for Use (IFUs)…
Weston “Hank” Balch, BS, MDiv, CRCST, CIS, CHL Director of Sterile Processing University Health System, TX It’s printed out and tacked to my office bulletin board, with the exact words that I wanted to remember — highlighted in neon green. And it’s not some deep, encouraging quote overlaying a picture of a peaceful mountain sunrise.…
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…
HIRING FOR SPD By Weston “Hank” Balch, CRCST, CIS, CHL I’m going to come right out and state the obvious: great SPD technicians don’t typically come knocking on your door when you need one. The general experience of SPD leaders is that we fight for weeks to get a position approved, only to receive a…