Sterile Processing Department Enhances Surgical Safety

Ever wonder how Greenwich Hospital sterilizes and keeps track of more than 118,000 surgical instruments every month? That’s 1.4 million individual instruments a year!

This monumental task is the responsibility of the employees in the Sterile Processing Department (SPD), who work behind the scenes and around the clock seven days a week.

SPD has an inventory system that makes it easier to track surgical trays and individual instruments at the hospital’s main campus and its ambulatory surgery center at Holly Hill Lane in Greenwich. The system communicates with the electronic medical record to track trays of instruments to a specific case and allows staff to check inventory when booking surgical cases.

“The inventory system enhances our ability to provide high-quality, safe patient care,” said Herbert Facey, SPD manager.

Any item that touches a patient goes through the decontamination, inspection, assembly and sterilization process, including joint implants, forceps, clamps, scopes and other instruments used during ENT (ear/nose/throat), labor and delivery, neurology, orthopedic, pediatric, robotic, spinal, urology and other surgical procedures. The entire process can take about 3½ hours from start to finish for a single tray of instruments to be used in the operating room. Some surgical procedures, such as total knee replacements or revisions, may involve up to 26 trays,
with each tray housing dozens of items.

“There can be no margin of error because the consequences are too profound,” said Facey. “We have to get it right 100 percent of the time.”

		Step 1 Nicholas Shelly-Cummins begins decontaminating instruments, cords and other items used during surgical procedures.
		Step 2 Claudia Gonzalez removes decontaminated instruments that are ready for inspection and assembly into trays.
		Step 3 Jessie Morales uses a magnifying glass to look for any tissue or bone residue in crevices or nicks that could compromise the instruments.
		Step 4 Jean Richeme opens the sterilizers, where temperatures reach more than 270 degrees.
		Step 5 Shelves are stocked with sterilized trays and individual instruments ready for use in the operating room.