Profiling and Evaluating a Sterilization Service in a Hospital

GALLARDO GALLEGOS G, VEGA EM, ORTIZ C

Congreso; Global Pharma Summit; 2015

Any Sterilization Service, as a department that sterilizes critical medicinal products, must comply with a series of standards and processes that would help it to ensure and warranty security and quality on its outcome products.The goal of this research was to develop a framework that would help to profile, and measure how effectively a Sterilization Service complies with the standards and requirements defined for such critical activity in any health care organization. This blueprint was developed as part of the implementation of a Quality Assurance Management System for the Sterilization Service in a hospital. In such context, the framework helped to diagnostic the Sterilization Service, define and stage improvement plans, and measure the result of each implementation.This framework consists of a checklist that defines nine critical sections. These sections cover different areas such as management, infrastructure, training, areas and procedures, human resources, equipment, and documentation.The checklist is based on industry standards, which helps to identify weak points and potential improvements. The framework provides a singular indicator that represents the level of fulfillment and alignment to industry standards. This indicator facilitates the comparison with other Sterilization Services. Furthermore, it allows the comparison between stages within a single Sterilization Service facilitating, for instance, to realize the results of carrying out an improvement plan.