Process Improvement Initiatives for Surgical Instrument Sterile Processing

U-M CHEPS/Past Projects/Additional Projects/Process Improvement Initiatives for Surgical Instrument Sterile Processing

Participants:

Faculty/Clinicians/Staff: James Bagian, Elvie Casper, Amy Cohn, Joseph DeRosier, Ryan DiStefano, Nicole Farquhar, Julia Jackson, Shawn Murphy, Brandon Pitts, William Pozehl, Renee Prince, Amy Redmond, Jania Torreblanca, Gabriel Zayas-Caban

Students: Hassan Abbas,  Sarah Bach, Abhi Bukkapatnam, Moses Chan, Wesley Chen, William Chen, Daniel Cullen, Erick Dagenais, Neil Gollapudi, Mark Grum, Daniel Hazlett, Loren Heubert-Aubry, Lauren Hirth, Malcolm Hudson, Madalina Jiga, Michael Kalmus, Jakob Kiel-Locey, Jared Kott, Emily Krebs, Sarthak Kumar, Steven MacPherson, Dale Malette, Malcolm Maturen, Ian McKenzie, Alex Mize, Anna Munaco, Rama Mwenesi, DucMinh Ngo, Caroline Owens, Joe Porcari, Leah Raschid, Roshun Sankaran, Nina Scheinberg, Matt See, Amber Smith, Isaac Smith, Hannah Strat, Muhammed Ugur, Nick Van Dijk, Maite Van Hentenryck, Rachel Wold, Megan Yanik, Anita Zhang, Bill Zhang

Project Contact: [email protected]

Project Synopsis: 

The major focus of the Surgical Instruments Team at CHEPS is to optimize the processing of surgical instruments used at Michigan Medicine. We work in close conjunction with the Central Sterile Processing Department (CSPD), which decontaminates, assembles and sterilizes all the reusable instruments used at Michigan Medicine. CSPD processes more than 16,000 instruments on daily basis being the core of circulation of all the instruments, accessory to critical, that are to be used in a surgery. Addressing the cleanability and processing of these instruments helps to ensure the availability of the instruments at the scheduled time for the surgery and thus delivering the best quality healthcare. Our aim is to help them optimize the processing of sterilization and smooth transition from different departments for the most effective and efficient outcome. Since 2018, the team has been working on the development of Surgical Instruments Cleanability dashboard (SICdash) which is a web application aimed to ease the processing of the instruments at the hospitals and CSPD. SICdash provides a quantitative measure for the difficulty of cleaning an instrument and centralizes their current surgical set management process. To measure difficulty, the team created a Cleanability Index which is derived from statistical modeling and regression analysis using the aggregate features of instruments in a set.

Papers, Posters, & Presentations:

Posters

  • “Evaluating Fire and Burn Risk Posed by Fiberoptic Cords.” Undergraduate Research Symposium, Ann Arbor MI, April 2019.
  • “Validating the Surgical Instrument Cleanability Index.” Undergraduate Research Symposium, Ann Arbor MI, April 2019.
  • “Analyzing Surgical Instrument Cleanability to Improve Patient Safety.” CHEPS Symposium, Ann Arbor MI, September 2018.
  • “Evaluating Fire and Burn Risk Posed by Fiberoptic Cords.” CHEPS Symposium, Ann Arbor MI, September 2018.
  • “Replacement and Separation of Kerrisons to Reduce Bioburden.” AORN Global Surgical Conference & Expo, New Orleans LA, March 2018.
  • “Developing and Implementing A New Standard Process for Surgical Instrument Decontamination.” Healthcare Systems Process Improvement Conference, Atlanta GA, February 2018.
  • “Introduction of a Standardized Decontamination Process in Sterile Processing Departments.” CHEPS Symposium, Ann Arbor MI, November 2017.
  • “A Systematic Analysis of Procedures, Cleanability & Manufacturer Cleaning Instructions of Surgical Instrument Processing.” CHEPS Healthcare Executive Summit, Ann Arbor MI, June 2017.
  • “A Systematic Analysis of Procedures, Cleanability & Manufacturer Cleaning Instructions of Surgical Instrument Processing.” Engineering Graduate Symposium, Ann Arbor MI, November 2016.
  • “A Systematic Analysis of Procedures, Cleanability & Manufacturer Cleaning Instructions of Surgical Instrument Processing.” CHEPS Symposium, Ann Arbor MI, September 2016.
  • “A Systematic Approach to Improving the Reprocessing of Surgical Instruments.” Healthcare Systems Process Improvement Conference, Houston TX, February 2016.
  • “Innovations in surgical instrument reprocessing for improved patient safety & financial outcomes at UMHS.” Engineering Graduate Symposium, Ann Arbor MI, October 2015.
  • “Innovations in Surgical Instrument Reprocessing Methods for Improved Patient Safety and Financial Stewardship at UMHS.” CHEPS Symposium, Ann Arbor MI, September 2015.
  • “Improving UMHS Surgical Instrument Reprocessing and Delivery.” CHEPS Symposium, Ann Arbor MI, October 2014.

Presentations