Consistent sterilisation of reuseable medical devices

Healthcare facilities are committed to delivering high quality care in a safe environment to safeguard patients from avoidable harm. 1 One area of paramount importance in protecting patients against infection is the decontamination and sterilisation function provided by the Central Sterile Services Department (CSSD). Here, Angelo Giambrone, Healthcare Business Development manager at Spirax Sarco UK, explores how decontamination leads and Authorising Engineers can drive improvements in steam quality to deliver reliable and consistent sterilisation of reusable medical devices. He also touches on what the future may hold for the Sterile Services Department ‘in a decarbonising world’.

Vulnerable hospital patients, often with compromised immune systems, are unfortunately at increased risk of infection. One report in the British Medical Journal stated that between 2016 and 2017, there were an estimated 653,000 healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs) among the 13.8 million adult inpatients in NHS general and teaching hospitals in England, of which 22,800 patients died as a result of their infection. HCAIs are closely monitored, and the data has been particularly scrutinised over the past year with the ongoing efforts to minimise the spread of COVID19. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) reported in 2016 that ‘the six most common types of healthcare-associated infections, which accounted for more than 80% of all HCAIs, were pneumonia and other respiratory infections (22.8%), urinary tract infections (17.2%), surgical site infections (15.7%), clinical sepsis (10.5%), gastrointestinal infections (8.8%), and bloodstream infections (7.3%)’.

As regards surgical site infections, there is guidance on the preparation of the surgical site, procedures during the operation, and post-operation care of the wound. One critical area in minimising risk of surgical site infection is in the effective decontamination of surgical equipment, and in particular ensuring that the equipment used in surgery is sterilised to the standards required by the industry. As a key infection control measure, decontamination is an ‘umbrella’ term used to describe the process of cleansing to remove contaminants such as microorganisms – making equipment safe or reuse in operating theatres, clinics, A&E departments, and wards. There are three levels of decontamination within the healthcare environment – the first line of defence is general cleaning, the second is disinfection, and, finally, the third is sterilisation for the removal of viable infectious agents, including viruses and bacterial spores. Effective decontamination can be achieved by applying the appropriate actions at all stages of the decontamination lifecycle process (Fig 1).