AST Guideline - Environmental Practices in the Operating Room

10 disposable costs of the tape; cost of rewrapping and sterilizing instrument sets that have torn wraps; labor costs for wrapping and rewrapping instrument sets; cost of blue wraps vs. cost of disinfecting rigid containers and replacing the filters. 8, 29 (3) When a HDO switches to rigid containers in-services should be held for the central sterile processing and OR departments on how to utilize the containers; proper disinfecting; filter replacement procedures; inspection of the external latch, filters, valves and tamper-evident locks in the OR; inspection of the integrity of the filter or valve and gasket. 29 These items should be completed based upon manufacturer’ IFU’s. It is also recommended that the department’s staff complete annual training on rigid containers as well as new hires and the training is documented by the HDO. Guideline V Surgery departments should establish a donation program for unopened, unused items as well as certain types of opened, unused items. 1. There are many types of unused supplies generated in the surgery department that can be donated rather than be placed in the waste stream. A. Accredited surgical technology programs are often on a “tight” budget in which the amount of supplies that can be purchased for students to use is limited. Local surgery departments can greatly assist by creating a donation tub in which extra supplies are placed for the Program Director to pick up on a weekly basis. For example, a surgical procedure is cancelled, but all the supplies were already opened; the surgery department could place the opened, but unused gowns, drapes, suction tubing, electrocautery, irrigation basins (if disposable), suture, back table sharps container, etc. into the donation tub. B. Veterinarian clinics often accept donations, in particular suture. The outer packet has, obviously, been opened to “flip” the suture onto the back table, but as long as the inner packet is not compromised, the clinic will accept the suture. C. Another important source to provide donations is medical missions and developing countries. The example of the suture provided above illustrates an avenue for providing much needed supplies to medical mission organizations as well as to HDOs in developing countries.