[Assuming Conformance vs. Assuming Non-Conformance] // We need more (informed) eyes 🔬 👀 on surgical instruments before they get packaged and processed on their way into the Operating Room. The reality is this: 👉 The life of a surgical instrument is "nasty, brutish, and short," to steal a phrase from the philosopher Thomas Hobbes. 👈
These little stainless steel (or some times plastic, titanium, or even wood!) devices undergo an absolutely BRUTAL journey to and from the OR every single day. They are:
jostled,
torqued,
manipulated,
tangled,
clamped,
set up and torn down,
covered in bodily fluids,
drenched in chemicals,
attacked with water/pressure/ultrasonic waves,
exposed to high temperatures,
constantly rubbing up against other instruments and transport baskets,
and on and on.
Is it any surprise they trend toward damage?
Knowing this (as all members of the #SterileProcessing team do), we should, in some sense, train our assumptions to "expect damage" and non-conformance during the assembly stage, instead of being surprised by it.
Instead of approaching the prep/pack phase as "ensuring there is no damage or residual debris" (which is assuming conformance) perhaps we should approach it as determining "where the damage and debris in this tray is" (which is assuming non-conformance).
Maybe we find damage, maybe we don't.
But the second approach takes into account how "nasty, brutish, and short" the instrument life cycle really is.
I noted in the intro that "We need more informed eyes" on these instruments.
I mean that in two ways:
💡 1) Eyes of technicians who are more thoroughly trained to look for and identify instrument non-conformance during the assembly stage AND the tools they need to do that more effectively (such as lighting, magnification, and even microscopes - https://a.co/d/dkW8KGO)
💡 2) Technological "eyes" such as machine vision that is trained (by the folks in the first point above) to identify debris, damage, and other non-conformance at a much faster, more consistent speed.
The current state of affairs is that much of our surgical instrument flow DO not receive the detailed inspection that it and our patients deserve simply due to a lack of TIME, TOOLS, and TRAINING. Most every technician in our industry will admit that this is the case.
But we will also admit that effective inspection has the potential to save lives, and ineffective inspection has the potential to lose them.
Which path will you choose today?
And what more can industry do to make it easy for #CleanFreaks to do the right thing? What say you?
#SterileProcessing #SurgicalInstruments #BeyondClean #WeFightDirty #Inspection
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