Sterilization of hinged instruments

[Lenora Leonard]

Hi all

Just wondering if anyone can let me know in  what position hinged instruments are being sterilised in their CSSDs?
<p style=”margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;”><span style=”mso-fareast-language: EN-IE;”><span style=”color: #000000; font-family: Calibri;”>The HSE Code of Practice for Decontamination of RIMD. Version 1.0 (illustrated), 2007. <span style=”color: red; font-family: ‘Calibri’,’sans-serif’; font-size: 11pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-IE; mso-fareast-font-family: ‘Times New Roman’; mso-bidi-font-family: ‘Times New Roman’; mso-ansi-language: EN-IE; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;”><u> For RIMD with ratchets, they should be closed on the first ratchet only, to ensure steam can penetrate to all surfaces</u></span></span></span></p>
<p style=”margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;”><span style=”font-family: Calibri;”><span style=”color: #000000;”><span style=”mso-spacerun: yes;”> </span></span><span style=”color: #000000;”>Our present practice is that they are open in the washer/disinfector and then closed (on the first ratchet) in the steriliser.</span></span></p>
 
<p style=”margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;”><span style=”font-family: Calibri;”><span style=”color: #000000;”>JCI  accreditation raised this as a partial met in a recent audit  as the CDC clearly states that all hinged instruments should be in the open position for the whole process.<span style=”mso-spacerun: yes;”>  </span></span><span style=”color: #000000;”>There does not appear to be any European guidance on this.</span></span></p>
 

Kind Regards

Brenda O Sullivan Connolly

Infection Prevention and Control CNS

Bon Secours Cork

 

 

 

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