Disinfection and sterilization: control hospital infections from the source

 

For patients, the words "Central Sterile Supply Department " seem a bit unfamiliar, but for a hospital, the Central Sterile Supply Department is an indispensable and important department. Its role to the hospital is like the liver to the human body. Every day, many strictly sterilized instruments and supplies are sent out from here and transported to various clinical departments of the hospital to ensure the normal operation of each clinical department.

The Central Sterile Supply Department is a special department of the hospital. It "hides" silently behind the clinical front line and is responsible for the cleaning, disinfection, sterilization and supply of sterile items for all reused diagnostic and treatment instruments, utensils and items in the hospital. It is known as the "liver of the hospital" because of its role in serving and ensuring clinical practice. The quality of its work is closely related to the hospital's infection control work.

"The Central Sterile Supply Department is an important support system for clinical front-line work, a key department for hospital infection management, and a core department for hospital disinfection supply. The quality of work directly affects the quality of medical care, is related to hospital infection control, and is related to patient medical safety."

The Central Sterile Supply Department has also introduced a batch of advanced disinfection and sterilization equipment, such as pressure steam sterilizers, multi-chamber cleaning and disinfection machines, oxyalkane sterilizers, etc. These equipment have greatly improved the Central Sterile Supply Department 's security level and disinfection and sterilization capabilities. In more than a month of operation, the pressure steam sterilizer equipment alone has sterilized nearly 700 batches.

While the environment, equipment and other hardware have been greatly improved, the Central Sterile Supply Department  has also further improved the standardized management of the Central Sterile Supply Department  in terms of personnel, training, systems and other aspects to improve the level of disinfection supply.

Reusable instruments recovered from clinical departments such as operating rooms and wards are first sent to the decontamination area. After single-chamber cleaning or multi-chamber cleaning and drying, they are sent to the inspection, packaging and sterilization area, where the staff will Equipment is classified and packaged. Instruments with different uses have different packaging methods and materials. For example, instruments double-packed with green pure cotton cloth are special equipment packages for operating rooms; instruments packaged with white pure cotton cloth are ward treatment packages... "The purpose of this is equivalent to Put a label on various equipment packages for different uses to make it easier for clinical departments to distinguish them when they are used.”

In the Central Sterile Supply Department, medical equipment does not cross or flow back from the initial decontamination and sterilization to the final reuse. After being used by the doctor, the scissors enter the decontamination area of the Central Sterile Supply Department  for decontamination, and then go through the multi-chamber cleaning and disinfection device for cleaning, disinfection, drying and other treatments. Afterwards, they arrive at the manual operating table in the inspection and packaging area. The operator union carefully checks the cleaning quality and light. Brightness, etc., only scissors that pass the inspection will be selected and put into the bag.

The Central Sterile Supply Department operators classified conventional instruments into various surgical instrument packages based on the surgeon's workflow and surgical requirements. The scissors and other instruments were packed in professional instrument boxes, and disinfection and sterilization instruction cards were placed in the bags for high-temperature During sterilization, a sterilization effect biological detector is attached to the outside of the bag. After disinfection, the staff will check the sterilization indicators. Only scissors that have passed the sterilization can be "reborn" and re-enter the workplace.

Some instruments that are not suitable for high-temperature sterilization will be sent to the low-temperature sterilization room for sterilization. All items selected for low-temperature sterilization must be thoroughly cleaned and dried, and can be disinfected and sterilized only after they are well packaged. After the sterilization is completed, the sterile items storage area is immediately entered through the interlocking window and is not allowed to stay in the low temperature room. During this period, the staff must also record all data completely and accurately.

There is no small matter in medical treatment, and the real work is in the details. Basic management is an important guarantee for the quality of medical care in a hospital. Equipment, standardized management, and an orderly operation of the Central Sterile Supply Department  show us a microcosm of the hospital's progress towards modernization and standardization.