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Let’s Get to The Point (of Use Cleaning): A Clinical Q & A
09.17.2019 • Industry News
We asked Brandon VanHee, CRCST, CER, GTS, Clinical Education Manager at Key Surgical, about point-of-use cleaning. He has a lot to say on why it’s important and how it helps with decontamination and protecting surgical instruments.Q: Why is point-of-use cleaning important?
A: Many people think that the cleaning process starts when surgical instrumentation is transported to decontam, but in reality, instrument cleaning starts at the point-of-use. Point-of-use cleaning is a critical step in the instrument reprocessing cycle because it improves the efficiency and effectiveness of decontamination and helps to prevent the formation of harmful microbial biofilms.
Q: What are the important steps of point-of-use cleaning?
A: To ensure effective point-of-use cleaning, the following steps should be taken:
- Wipe instruments to remove gross soil
- Irrigate cannulated instruments
- Disassemble multi-piece instruments
- Identify instruments needing repair
- Apply a pre-treatment product to keep instruments moist
- Prepare for immediate transfer to decontam
Q: Why are pre-treatment spray foams important?
A: Pre-treatment spray foam products, like Dr. Weigert neodisher® PreStop, play an essential role in preparing instrumentation at the point of use for several reasons. First, PreStop acts as a bacteriostatic wetting agent which keeps instruments moist for up to 72 hours. This inhibits microbial growth and prevents surgical soil from drying on the instruments. PreStop also acts as a corrosion inhibitor, which protects surgical instruments from the harmful effects of pitting corrosion, and can help to extend the life surgical instrumentation. Additionally, PreStop promotes improved cleaning results during the manual cleaning process in decontam.
Q: How does point-of-use cleaning help in decontamination?
A: Following proper point-of-use cleaning protocol has a significant impact to decontamination of surgical instruments. Precleaning helps to ensure that gross soil does not dry on instruments. Dried surgical soil can be difficult to remove during manual cleaning and can also lead to damaging corrosion on instrumentation. In fact, pre-treatment products can promote better cleaning results and lead to more efficient manual cleaning processes in decontam.
Q: How does point-of-use cleaning help protect surgical instruments?
A: Ensuring that corrosion-promoting surgical soils like blood, serum, and other tissue are effectively removed at the point-of-use, and applying a corrosion inhibiting pre-treatment spray, like PreStop, can prevent damage caused by corrosion on surgical instruments. Taking a proactive approach to corrosion prevention can extend the life cycle of surgical instrumentation and reduce the costs of instrument repair and replacement.
Check out Key Surgical’s new point-of-use/ Precleaning spray foam, Dr. Weigert PreStop.