It’s A Wonderful Shelf-Life
Dustin Patterson | Regional Sales Manager, LogiQuip LLC.
A big challenge in sterile storage is knowing whether sterile instruments or packs have been compromised, especially when there isn’t any visible damage. Two methods of tracking sterility are used for managing shelf life: time-based shelf life and event-based shelf life. In recent years a better understanding of the what causes contamination has pushed many facilities to move to the practice of event-based shelf life. There are several “events” that can impact sterility, including:
- Handling: the possibility of a sterile items becoming contaminated increases as the handling of these items increases. Dropping a package or tearing the wrap moving it in or out of storage will result in throwing supplies away or sending instruments back to reprocessing. Once an item is placed in sterile storage, leave it alone until it is time to use.
- Storage Room Conditions: Track and maintain the proper temperature and humidity levels as well as storing items to ANSI-AAMI ST97 2017 guidelines standards (discussed in our February post) can help to mitigate contamination. In addition, routine cleaning of shelves should be completed according to your facilities cleaning schedule.
- Packaging Material Used: There are several options for packaging sterile instruments including peel-pouches, rigid containers, and sterile wraps. Packaging materials should be selected based on the type of sterilization is being used. For example, if steam autoclave is being used, you can use paper, plastic, cloth, peel pouches, and wrapped perforated cassettes.
As always, follow the policies and procedures that have been implemented by your facility and the manufacturer.
Dustin Patterson is currently the Mid-West Regional Sales Manager with Logiquip Healthcare Storage Solutions, a leading provider of high- quality, future focused storage systems designed exclusively for use in the healthcare environment. Logiquip is based out of Kalamazoo, MI and has served healthcare organizations across the US for 30 years. Dustin brings over 12 years of experience in space planning and healthcare storage. He has acted on behalf of LogiQuip as the vendor liaison to the AHRMM Wisconsin Chapter, a leading membership group for healthcare supply chain professionals. Working closely with many hospitals and surgery centers, Dustin has developed tailored solutions using a mix of best practices, Lean principles, and industry-leading storage equipment. He has also worked with many Sterile Processing Departments to maximize storage spaces, balancing trade-offs between high-capacity storage layouts and workflow efficiencies.
