Sklar Research, Reports & Articles

Within the last 3 years, JCAHO regulation states that all clinics that are under a Hospital or IDN system need to have a Clean room and a Decontamination room. If a clinic does not have both rooms, instruments will need to be transported to the closest hospital for processing. Instruments should be sprayed with enzymatic cleaner after the procedure and kept moist.  A foaming enzymatic will work well to attack the bio-burden and cover the instruments for transport.

Read more about the challenges and lessons in Building a New Central Sterile Processing Department in this article from Infection Control Today, written by William DeLuca Challenges & Lessons in Building a New Sterile Processing Dept

Over the last few decades, the rate of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) has caused great safety and quality of care concern and placed infection prevention at the forefront of healthcare initiatives.

Cleaning Care of Box Joint and Screw Joint Instruments. When cleaned before sterilization instruments, box joint (e.g. Halstead mosquito hemostats, Kelly’s or Crile’s) and screw joint instruments (Mayo scissors, Iris scissors, Metzenbaum scissors) need to be opened to remove any bio burden from these areas.

Sklar’s Surgical Instrument and medical supply catalogs are excellent sources for specifications on our surgical instruments and supplies. They provide supplementary information on care, cleaning, and new innovations. Because the healthcare industry evolves frequently, we update our catalogs to reflect changes in surgical instruments in order to provide facilities with the best and most effective instruments.

Surgical instruments are specially designed tools that assist health care professionals carry out specific actions during an operation. Most instruments crafted from the early 19^th century on are made from durable stainless steel. Some are designed for general use, and others for specific procedures. There are many surgical instruments available for almost any specialization in medicine. There are precision instruments used in microsurgery, ophthalmology and otology. Most surgical instruments can be classified into these 4 basic types:

Sklar believes that education is the most important tool anyone can have, and educating healthcare professionals has always been a top priority for us. Many hours and collective effort have gone in the development of our free CE course, and it makes us proud to have you take advantage of it.

Dr. Daryoush Tavanaiepour Interim Chair, Department of Neurosurgery, Medical Director, Skull Based Surgery, Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery, University of Florida

Dr. Tavanaiepour works at UF Health College of Medicine in Downtown, Jacksonville, and he was so kind as to set aside some time out of his busy schedule, to receive us for a casual interview.

Patients should be aware of a medical practice that has become dangerously common during the last few years. Disposable medical instruments are being reused by hospitals even though manufacturers insist that these devices should be used once and then thrown away. So, why do some hospitals reprocess single-use instruments? Their answer is simple. They claim it saves them money. Why use a disposable pair of scissors to cut the umbilical cord on only one newborn child, when it’s better to reprocess them and use them on two newborns? The full price they paid for a single pair of scissors gets cut by 50% when utilizing this practice.

The prevention and reduction of healthcare-associated infection (HAI) is a top priority in hospitals, surgery centers, and physician’s offices today. Increased vigilance toward instrument reprocessing procedures and improved personnel efficiency enhances both patient outcomes and lowers costs.

This calls to attention the “human factors” involved in cleaning and sterilizing of surgical instruments. It has also created the necessity for well trained and competent staff in the reprocessing areas, to reassess and improve upon current best practices.

Sterile processing procedures that need to be reevaluated immediately include: