ScanCARE Blog

Just yesterday, I received an email informing me that the AS 4187 compliance deadline of December this year had been extended.

The news surprised me. Our subscription to SAI Global Standards watch would normally have alerted us if there had been an amendment in the standard. So I searched high and low on the SAI Global site and then Standards Australia and then the old trusty Google.

However I was unable to find anything. So I mentioned it to our Office Manager who then went off and tried her luck with Google.

We've all had the experience of sitting in waiting room for what seems and absolute eternity waiting to see a medical professional. Flicking through outdated, dog eared magazines, keeping an eye on the queue, feeling nervous and hoping that it’s your turn next.

It’s crazy really, because not only does it create discomfort and dissatisfaction with patients, it also costs the practice significantly in terms of customer satisfaction and higher operating costs.

But why does this happen and, more to the point, how can it be improved?

Traditional EHR systems do not meet ophthalmologists' functional requirements. This is what an August 2011 report published by the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) says.

The paper which is titled ‘Special Requirements for Electronic Health Record Systems in Ophthalmology’ argues that the field of ophthalmology has a number of ‘specialty specific’ requirements that are not taken into consideration by traditional EHR systems. Its abstract reads:

The advances in surgical procedures and surgical instrumentation, over the past 10-20 years has been astounding. Once upon a time, just about every surgical procedure was open surgery and involved simple pivot based stainless steel instruments. These days, surgical instruments are highly complex hybrid material devices.

This has led to a quiet revolution in sterilizing departments around the world. Instruments were once simple and tray assembly straightforward.

In my blog post titled "What you need to know about Surgical Instrument Direct Part Marking (DPM)" I wrote about the laser etching process. The post discusses what  equipment is required for etching your instruments and the logistic aspects of  the process as well as some of its positives and shortcomings. Today I will revisit some of those concepts but with a wider context as to why you need to etch your instruments.

Generally CSSD managers understand the benefits of laser etching, so today we will see why it’s not already done for you when you buy an instrument.

The new version of AS/NZS 4187 released on the 15^th December last year brought some very significant changes to the previous standard. One of the most significant ones being the standards reference to Product Families.

Staff privileges and system security are two common features of surgical instrument tracking systems that we are often asked about.

Hourly rates or process costing information, for example, is usually considered confidential and for this reason CSSD and theatre managers need to be able to regulate who can and who cannot access this level of detail.

Network IT adminstrators too, have an interest in this topic as they need to ascertain the level of security provided by the tracking application.

My experience is that the needs of clinical managers and those of network IT administrators don’t always align. Individual stakeholder requirements warrant careful consideration to achieve successful and sustainable outcomes for all concerned.

This post discusses how to navigate the area of staff privileges and security to meet and satisfy all stakeholders' needs. 

Short on time? Why not download our handy 1 page User Roles Chart?

 

With the deadline for implementation of AS4187 2014 coming up fast, I thought that it may be worthwhile to take another look at product families.

There seems to be a lot of interest in AS4187 and product families and my blog of August 2015 is by far our most read page on our website. The helpful categorisation guide gets downloaded several times each week.

In January 2013, the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) came into effect requiring mandatory compliance for all public and private hospital and day surgeries and the majority of public dental practices.

Re-usable Medical Devices must, in accordance with AS4187 2014, be labelled prior to sterilisation. The label must identify the contents and provide information for batch control. 

But while the standard's requirements are critical, there are also a number of other requirements such as OH&S that may affect the way you label your RMD’s.