From Dirty to Purdy
SPD personnel must follow these written manufacturer instructions for cleaning and sterilizing medical devices.
What are Instructions for Use (IFUs)
This agency regulates environmental disinfectants, air emissions, and water pollutants under acts like the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act.
What is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)?
This term refers to a principle, rule, or law designed to control or govern behavior, and compliance with it is mandatory.
What is a regulation?
SPD technicians are responsible for cleaning, decontaminating, and sterilizing these items for safe patient care.
What are medical and surgical devices?
This act requires healthcare facilities to protect the confidentiality and security of patient information.
What is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)?
This term refers to how staff and visitors move through the SPD to prevent cross-contamination.
What is people flow?
This organization regulates medical devices and requires manufacturers to provide Instructions for Use (IFUs) for device cleaning and sterilization.
What is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)?
This organization develops standards for steam sterilization, chemical disinfection, and endoscope processing, which are widely recognized as the primary measure of good practice in the SPD.
What is the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI)?
This term refers to the manufacturer’s process of establishing that a device consistently meets its intended specifications.
What is validation?
This term refers to the discipline that deals with what is good and bad, as well as moral duty and obligation.
What is ethics?
Before entering the clean area of the SPD, technicians must remove all of this protective gear and wash their hands.
What is personal protective equipment (PPE)?
This federal organization publishes infection control standards and guidelines but is not a regulatory agency.
What is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)?
These statements are based on scientific data and expert opinion, reflecting sound professional practice, but compliance with them is not legally required.
What are recommended practices and guidelines?
Devices in this Spaulding category must be sterile at the time of use because they enter sterile body tissues or the vascular system.
What are critical devices?
This ethical issue arises when healthcare workers fail to report noncompliance with reprocessing protocols or PPE use.
What is employee safety?
This term refers to how work progresses from soiled items to sterile items within the SPD.
What is workflow?
This agency enforces workplace safety standards, including regulations on chemical exposure and bloodborne pathogens.
What is the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)?
This group is responsible for ensuring compliance with both mandatory regulations and voluntary standards in the sterile processing department.
Who are sterile processing technicians?
Before entering the clean area of the SPD, technicians must remove all of this protective gear and wash their hands.
What is personal protective equipment (PPE)?
Policies define what must be done, while these documents outline the steps needed to comply with the policy.
What are procedures?
SPD technicians must participate in training and certification programs offered by organizations such as IAHCSMM and this board.
What is the Certification Board for Sterile Processing and Distribution (CBSPD)?
This organization accredits healthcare facilities and conducts inspections to ensure compliance with safety and quality standards.
What is The Joint Commission (TJC)?
This type of practice is recognized as the primary measure of good practice for procedures like steam sterilization and flexible endoscope processing, though it is not legally required unless adopted by state health departments.
What are standards?
When IFU instructions differ between the sterilizer manufacturer and the device manufacturer, this set of instructions should be followed.
What is the device manufacturer’s IFU?
Generational and cultural differences in the SPD workplace can lead to misunderstandings, which are categorized under this ethical issue.
What is work ethic?