Sterile processing departments (SPDs) commonly receive as many as 60 loaner trays from vendors or couriers at once. Vendors also often bring more sets than are needed for contingencies or evaluations. This increases SPD workloads, and increases wasted time, energy, and resources.
Loaner instruments, or trays, are devices that are not owned or stored by the healthcare facility but are usually loaned by the device manufacturer for specific procedures. When received, the SPDs must inspect, record, decontaminate, and sterilize the loaner instruments and follow all facility policies and procedures. The SPD should not accept loaner instruments without the manufacturer’s tray contents lists, and written instructions for disassembly, decontamination, cleaning, packaging, and sterilization methods and cycles.
Challenges
Surgical loaners can pose risks to patient safety and facility efficiency if not managed properly. However, they can also offer advantages, such as reduced costs and expanded services, especially when using the right medical inventory software. Here are some challenges that can arise with surgical loaners:
- Unfamiliar Instruments: Technicians may break unfamiliar instruments without realizing it.
- Improper Decontamination: Loaners that aren’t properly decontaminated can put patients at risk of infection.
- Rushed Delivery: Loaners delivered too close to surgery time can increase the risk of mistakes.
- Complex Instruments: Loaner sets can contain complex instruments that are difficult to clean, such as multilevel trays with screws and plates.
- Inadequate Time: Facilities may not have enough time to properly reprocess trays or follow the manufacturer’s instructions for cleaning.
- Critical Cleanliness: Before instrumentation can be sterilized or used on a patient, it must be clean.
Note: As minimally invasive surgery becomes more common and instrumentation becomes more complex, cleaning instrumentation gets harder. This is particularly true for orthopedic instrumentation, which is often composed of multiple, interlocking pieces that may move once assembled. Some tools can retain pathogens (such as the culprit behind Surgical Site Infection) even after sterilization because of the way they’re put together, so it’s critical to follow the manufacturer’s instructions—which should include any special reprocessing instructions.
In the ever-evolving world of surgical instrumentation, it is imperative that Sterile Processing Teams within Health Systems have real-time integration points with suppliers to receive inbound Loaner kit/tray data (IFUs, ETA, set list, training videos, etc.) and request in-servicing and on-demand support.
Optimize sterilization productivity with Movemedical’s Loaner Logistics Module
Movemedical’s Loaner Logistics module provides health systems with ERP-level data related to loaned medical device inventory. Existing sterility assurance platforms require Sales Reps to curate data related to loaner kits; this approach often results in inaccurate data and the potential for unapproved products to be used in the Operating Room. Integrating with suppliers at the ERP-level allows Sterile Processing Teams to optimize sterilization throughput based on inbound loaner volumes, instrumentation complexity, and staffing availability.
By addressing these challenges and leveraging advanced logistics modules of medical inventory software, healthcare facilities can enhance both safety and efficiency, ensuring better outcomes for patients and smoother operations for medical staff.
If a conversation about enhancing efficiency in your loaner process makes sense, let’s talk:
Contact us here: info@movemedical.com / call 877.469.3992 or watch this VIDEO (executive case study)
