Healthcare Hygiene magazine October 2019 | Page 37

sterile processing
By Hank Balch
The Missing Science of Sterile Processing:
On Credentials and Real Improvement
M
icrobiology, chemistry, physics.
Some of us took introduction classes to these sub-
jects in high school, a few went on to take a semester or two
in college, but for many sterile processing (SP) professionals
across the country these hard sciences are mostly relegated
to a chapter or two in a certification textbook. After all, do
we really need to know chemistry to do our jobs well? How
important can physics really be to an SP technician? Being
able to speak the language of microbiology couldn’t be
that important to surgical instrument reprocessing, could it?
Does anyone know what a biocatalyst is? Or what it has
to do with the decontamination process? At the end of the
day, do these questions even matter?
In fact, every single one of us in the industry know the
answer to this question is “Yes, science matters!” But the
near universal absence of credentialed scientists employed
in sterile processing departments tells a very different story.
Unless your department is led by a B.S. in biology or employed
solely by team members with B.S. degrees in chemistry,
your exposure to the true science behind how your sterile
processing department actually interact with chemistry,
physics, and microbiology is limited to whatever self-study
you pursued under your own initiative. Admittedly, many
CS/SPD leaders and technicians have taken these extra steps
to fill in the science knowledge gaps, but the fact that they
had to go over and above the industry standards should tell
us something very important about the current “industry
standards” – namely, they are way too low.
Breaking the Chains and Changing the World
So, you can name the biological spore used in steam
sterilization testing — geobacillus stearothermophilus …
so what? Why that spore instead of another? Why do we
use spore testing at all? Is there a better way to measure
sterility assurance and how would we know? If you ask
sterile processing professionals across the country, we want
to know the answers to these questions. We know it’s
important. And we know that our ability to holistically grasp
these categories, and do so in a creative, innovative way,
will move the industry of CS-improvement firmly in-house,
rather than being dependent upon external vendors (who,
by the way, employ chemists, physicists and microbiologists
to create their nifty new products).
As generations of us learned in Schoolhouse Rock!,
“knowledge is power” — and in the case of the hard
sciences, knowledge is also the engine of innovation, the
catalyst for product changes, and the great differentiator in
industry compensation. CS/SPD professionals talk a lot about
www.healthcarehygienemagazine.com • october 2019
facility pay practices and how our counterparts in the OR
make somewhere close to 200 percent to 300 percent more
than our teams, but what is often left out of the equation
is the two- to three-times more education RNs and BSNs
have as compared to CS/SPD technicians. That need not be
so. There is another way.
The Great Educational Leap: Know Ye the Truth
So, what can deliver our industry from the basement
of healthcare compensation, sluggish career growth, and
token respect? I believe one of the best ways to get our
teams to where we want to be and where our patients
need us to be is to take a great educational leap in sterile
processing. The recent success we have seen over the last
decade in the surge of industry certification through the
IAHCSMM and CBSPD organizations (not only the standard
certification, but also secondary and tertiary certifications as
well) has sparked a deep hunger among CS professionals for
continued growth. What we have not yet seen is a dramatic
impact of these certifications upon total compensation and
demonstrable quality metrics in the country’s CS depart-
ments. In other words, even with more credentials, there’s
still something missing.
I believe that missing link has to do, in part, with the need
to create a science-heavy, higher-education career track that
not only prepares CS professionals for every aspect of the
role, but also provides our people with recognized degrees
that translate into competitive pay-grades as compared
with our OR peers. Simply put, if we really want to solve
the pay/quality issues of our industry, it will take more mere
certifications – even if they are mandated in all 50 states.
One certification course doth not an expert make.
And to be fair, these certification bodies do not claim
the title of “expert” for their certification holders. Instead
the language is usually something like “providing a base-
line knowledge” of industry standards. And for what it’s
worth, that is a noble and needed cause. But is it enough?
Is baseline knowledge enough for the systemic quality issues
in our industry? Is one textbook course going to shake the
compensation tree in the ways that we desperately need
to drive these departments forward?
I think we all know the answers to this. But what are we
going to do about it?
Hank Balch is an internationally recognized thought leader
in the sterile processing industry, as well as podcast host,
and founder of Beyond Clean. His passion is to equip teams
to fight dirty, every instrument, every time.
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