Here's a popular brainteaser that illustrates the concept of "thinking
out of the box," something that outpatient surgery facility managers have
to do every day. The problem is to connect the nine points, shown in the
illustration below, with only four straight lines without taking your
pen off the paper. The solution appears on page 41. But don't turn the
page just yet; I'm about to show you a true "out-of-the-box" way to save
money on expensive disposable wraps.
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If you use non-woven disposable wraps to wrap your instrument trays,
you may have run across this problem. Tightly wrapped trays, especially
the older ones with sharp corners, tend to puncture the wraps during the
sterilization process and subsequent handling. Non-woven wraps, because
of their physical structure, tear more easily than the woven variety.
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Step 2. Place the instruments in the tray as usual.
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Your solution to this problem may have been to purchase heavier, stronger,
more costly wraps or to use expensive sterilization container systems.
You may have even reverted back to using woven wraps and elected to deal
with the issues of laundering, de-linting, and inspecting the wraps for
pinholes after each use. But there's an easier, more cost-effective way.
Instead of wrapping the entire tray, wrap only the instruments inside
using the following method:
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Step 3. Make the first wrap.
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This approach offers several advantages. The instrument tray itself
serves as the sterilization container system, complete with handles to
make the package easy to transport. The contents of the tray are kept
up and away from any casual surface moisture that would contaminate the
contents. Most importantly, you can use the least expensive type of wrap
and not worry about the wrap tearing.
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Step 4. Make the second wrap, (or you can use a "one step" double wrap and save this step.
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To make sure you don't compromise sterility in the OR, place the tray
on a back table or a separate table close to the sterile field, much as
you would a sealed container sterilization system. Or, you can place the
tray at one end of the sterile field, and when you unwrap the instruments,
carefully drape the wrap over the outside edge of the tray, creating a
new sterile field around its perimeter. Contrary to popular opinion, this
would not compromise the sterile integrity of the sterile field.
Regardless of how you want to use it, this is a good idea that will
help you save money, improve the handling of sterile instrument sets,
and get you thinking out of the box.
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Step 5. The finished package.
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Dan Mayworm is the former president of Mayworm Associates, Inc. and publisher of The Journal of Healthcare Resource Management and Infection Control & Sterilization Technology. He is the former president of Tower Products, Inc., a manufacturer of packaging materials for the medical device industry. Mr. Mayworm has served as president of the Health Industries Association and as an executive committee member of the Health Industry Manufacturers Association, and has given expert testimony before both the House and Senate subcommittees.
If you have an infection prevention question that you would like Mr.
Mayworm to answer in this column, fax it to 610-240-4919, snail mail it
to Outpatient Surgery Magazine, 3 Beryl Road, 2nd Floor, Paoli, PA 19301,
or e-mail Mr. Mayworm at [email protected].
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