Ideas That Work: Green Tag in Instrument Trays

Throughout the course of a day, certain instruments require special attention or need to be fast-tracked through the reprocessing cycle and returned to the ORs as soon as possible. Attaching a green plastic placard to a key ring and placing it in an instrument tray alerts members of the sterile processing team that the set of tools requires extra attention. “The disposable placard indicates the tray needs to go to the front of the line in decontamination or that it contains specialized instrumentation that must be handled with care,” says Gretchen Steelman, MBA, BSN, RN, CNOR, supply chain category manager at the University of North Carolina Health System in Durham. “It’s a simple visual cue that can be used for critical sets that are limited in number or contain delicate instruments.” OSM