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Collaboration Between Perioperative Nurses and Sterile Processing Department Personnel
ROSE E. SEAVEY, RN, BS, MBA, CNOR, ACSP
ABSTRACT
Ensuring patient safety requires collaboration between all members of the surgical team, which includes personnel in the sterile processing department. Because of the close working relationship between the OR and sterile processing department, it is important that employees in these departments work well together.
Reducing errors and misunderstandings can contribute to improved relationships between personnel in these two departments. Strategies should include a focus on reducing instrument set errors, fostering teamwork and positive relationships, improving interdepartmental communication, and ensuring compliance with policies that are based on the most current evidence available. AORN J 91 (April 2010) 454-462. AORN, Inc, 2010. doi: 10.1016/j.aorn.2009.09.029
Key words: collaboration, teamwork, patient safety, sterile processing.
The primary responsibility for any health care provider is to minimize risks to patients. Improving quality of care and pro
moting patient safety requires teamwork among all health care professionals. Implementing the Joint Commissions National Patient Safety Goals1 and the national initiatives to reduce health care-associated infections are two examples of how health care professionals can work together to make patient care safer.
In the perioperative arena, reducing surgical site infections takes a collaborative effort from the surgical teamusually considered to be the professionals who are physically present at the OR bed. Although sterile processing department
(SPD) professionals are not physically present during surgeries, the work they do can have signicant effects on patient safety. As part of the surgical team, SPD professionals should be held accountable for patient safety along with the RN, surgeon, anesthesia care provider, and scrub person.
Arguably, no two departments in the hospital work more closely than the OR and the SPD, making it imperative that the employees in these departments work well together. Creating a culture free from blame in which collaboration is expected and interdisciplinary relationships are fostered can greatly affect and improve patient safety.
doi: 10.1016/j.aorn.2009.09.029
454 AORN Journal April 2010 Vol 91 No 4 AORN, Inc, 2010
COLLABORATION www.aornjournal.org
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
When seasoned perioperative nurses get together, the discussion frequently turns to remember when? stories. Sometimes the memories are fond, and sometimes they are not. The way things used to be in the old days can be very...