Roles & Responsibilities

A doctor’s preference card is also known as DPC. A checklist that consists of everything the surgeon has requested for the case. Every case is printed at a particular time during the day before with every DPC and sent to sterile processing. As an SP technician, you will load the case cart with/ or both durable instruments and disposable items as listed on the DPC. Each instrument has a barcode as an efficient reliable method to track it all completed.

Completed carts could/should be staged near a clean elevator which keeps them out of the o.r until needed.

If an instrument is needed unexpectedly, the circulating nurse calls down to request the item, an SP sends it up on the dumb waiter. When the case is completed, the o.r sends the instruments back down on the same case cart to be cleaned on the dirty elevator.

Contaminated instruments must be kept segregated from the clean instruments and clean from sterile. So to the dirty to clean to the sterile zone.

In order for the instruments to pass from the dirty zone to the clean zone, they have to pass through regular/ super-sized dishwashers.

The clean zone should have a factory feel to it all day--clean instruments enter this zone where they are inspected, kitted, and packed for some future case.

By skilled specialists, they examine and test the instruments to be sure they’re suitable for the next case.

In the clean zone, multiple stations perform similar functions but for different customer groups. The process is designed around the customer. (Not around the functions)

Clean instruments go in specialized packaging that’s tolerant of extreme heat and then run through a wall of industrial sterilizers.

Ways to know they got sterile is by special tape, which reveals its colored stripes only after it’s reached the required temperature in the sterilizer. SP has a tester to confirm that any bacteria that’s in there is dead coming out.

Another way to tell if it’s sterile is through temperature records that are produced by the machines on every run.

After the sterilizer, the kits go back on the shelves where we (SP) wait on the next patient. During the waiting process, plastic arrow latches prevent accidental opening and let the o.r team know that instruments inside are safe.

When a kit is ready to use, the metallic case breaks the arrow easily, once they’re ready to be open, a specialized technique called the envelope fold allows the sterile instrument to open with one hand.