High-Tech Instrument Care

Sterile processing departments (SPDs) might not have the ability to dematerialize bioburden with a sci-fi-like laser beam, but the technologies and solutions available to today’s reprocessing techs are becoming smarter, faster and more advanced with each passing day. The impact of these innovations cannot be understated. Cutting-edge technology in SPDs directly impacts the working quality of surgical instrumentation and the life span of the instruments themselves. It also provides desperately needed efficiency for high-volume facilities in the fast-paced world of outpatient surgery.

Edwin Martinez, a central sterile processing technician at MacNeal Hospital in Berwyn, Ill., dreams of a day when near-field communication (NFC) tracking technology is integrated seamlessly into his SPD. If you’ve ever used a hotel key card to open the door to your room or held up your mobile phone to pay at a checkout register, you’ve encountered NFC technology, which works at very close range to transfer information between two electronic devices.

To date, the most straightforward application of NFC is through radio frequency identification (RFID) and barcode scanning systems that allow SPD leaders to know exactly where high-cost surgical instrumentation and implant trays are in real time, so they can locate them on demand. However, Mr. Martinez believes there is more potential for NFC technologies at the micro level — on staffers’ personal devices.

“I already use my phone as a tool throughout my day because it offers so much versatility,” he says, pointing to his ability to take notes, send emails, set reminders and timers, take pictures with time stamps, store contact information, troubleshoot issues with video calls and find information online. “But then I still have all these surgical instruments in front of me that my phone’s current abilities can do very little with.” Mr. Martinez believes real-time NFC tracking systems should be able to communicate with personal devices. “We already have wireless networks in hospitals, and we keep our phones close to or on us at all times in sterile processing,” he says. “The technology is there, someone just needs to implement it in ways that could help us track single instruments, trays and surgical case carts with our phones.”

Systems that allow staff to leverage their smartphones would be a natural extension of the instrument tracking systems already in use. Facilities can expect to see this type of tech on the market in the very near future.

At the University of Louisville (Ky.) Health System, Sterile Processing Department Manager Matthew Frederick, CRCST, believes we’re on the verge of seeing a tidal wave of machine learning flow into SPDs, including artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality. “Many of the technologies that have come to market recently in the sterile processing space are focused on increasing efficiencies and quality,” says Mr. Frederick. From the relatively simple technology of automated flushing pumps for manual cleaning to software that can identify missing instruments from a tray with a single photo, you can feel the high-tech momentum brewing, he says.

During a recent educational symposium on automation and reprocessing in sterile processing, presenters from across the globe discussed the growing applications for technologies such as automated manual cleaning in decontamination, instrument sorting for mechanical washing, robotic-assisted instrument assembly and AR training tools. “It’s great that vendors and hospital administrators are starting to focus on SPDs to ensure we get the attention and, just as importantly, the innovations required to keep improving surgical care,” says Mr. Frederick.

He would love to see instruments’ Instructions For Use available through AR glasses, which would ensure documented steps of reprocessing are accessible to technicians when and where they need them. He’d also like to see companies leverage the power of AI to optimize surgical trays so facilities can better maintain inventory databases.

Mr. Frederick believes innovations in instrument care may one day go beyond the computer and into the instruments themselves. “I believe that with more advances in the technology of imaging and 3D printers, our reprocessing teams may start printing single-use instruments instead of sterilizing reusable instruments, thus eliminating the potential for cross-contamination,” he says.

A technology renaissance is happening throughout the sterile processing industry. With the growing complexity of surgical procedures being performed in outpatient ORs across the country, more forward-thinking facilities are turning their attention to high-tech reprocessing systems for their surgical instruments. 

That means it’s more important than ever for facility leaders to have their fingers on the pulse of emerging technologies that improve the dangerous and dirty jobs done by hardworking techs in SPDs. When it comes to cutting-edge technology and sterile processing, it’s no longer a question of if this equipment will be used, it’s now a question of when. Will you be ready to invest in the latest platforms when that day arrives? OSM