Imagine this:
At a congress you hear a lecture about pitting corrosion, hygiene scandals, clinic closures.
You intensify the visual inspection and see isolated - deposits! What now? The expert consultant for process chemistry happens to be in the hospital. He gives the hint that it could be due to the #waterquality. The service technician for the washer-disinfector is there for routine maintenance - the #waterquality is fine, possibly it is due to the #steamsupply. The sterilizer is being revalidated by the manufacturer and the technician again suspects that it could be the material quality from the instrument. However, since the deposits only occur sporadically and on certain instruments, there does not seem to be a systematic fault. What now?
In daily practice, the parameters of processing provide a stable and inconspicuous result. Instruments are visually inspected and surface changes are not common. The #validation of the procedures checks the cleaning performance and the biocompatibility values for the permissible concentration of residual chemistry.
Nevertheless, changes can suddenly occur. Finding the cause is not always easy, as numerous influencing factors can be causative. Localizing these influencing factors can be like walking through a labyrinth. There are side paths and dead ends, the situation is sometimes confusing and yet the goal may be just around the corner.
In seeking solutions, it is important to avoid dead ends and to take a bird's eye view. The newly developed #ProcessAnalysisSheet of #AKI helps to reflect on all issues of the entire process and thus to improve the assessment of possible interactions.
Click here to go directly to the data entry sheet:
About the author
Johannes Gulde has been a member of AKI since 2018 and is one of the representatives of the instrument manufacturers in the group. Within the KLS Martin Group, he is responsible for product management for surgical instruments, sterilization containers and related services.