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Point of use treatment of reusable medical devices

Dr. Georgia Alevizopoulou offers guidance on the treatment of medical devices at the point of use, to ensure optimum decontamination.

She discusses the key role of perioperative staff in ensuring important steps are carried out, which will ultimately contribute to ensuring patient safety.

Regardless of where a medical or surgical procedure is performed or how, all reusable medical devices used on patients during clinical practice must be rendered safe by performing a series of steps in the reprocessing cycle to essentially include cleaning, disinfection and/or sterilisation, as shown in Fig 1. While reprocessing of the medical devices is commonly thought of as a process that begins in the Central Sterile Services Department (CSSD), in truth it starts where the device was most recently used clinically. This step is known as point of use (POU) treatment and is, in fact, the very first step in the cycle of decontamination.

Strictly speaking, POU refers to the care and handling by clinical and technical staff pre‐operatively, intra-operatively, and post-operatively. This article discusses the care and handling of instruments directly post-procedure and their subsequent safe transport to the designated decontamination area. It will address the importance of, and review the process for, implementing POU treatment of medical devices

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Upcoming Events

Central Sterilising Club - Annual Scientific Meeting 2024

Crowne Plaza at Gerrard’s Cross
15th April 2024 – 16th April 2024

DECON UK 2024

National Conference Centre, Birmingham
17th April 2024

Infection Prevention & Control

National Conference Centre, Birmingham
23rd - 24th April 2024

Theatres & Decontamination Conference 2024

Coventry Building Society Arena
16th May 2024

The AfPP Roadshow - Birmingham

Millennium Point, Birmingham
18th May 2024

The AfPP Roadshow - Exeter

University of Exeter
22nd June 2024

Access the latest issue of Clinical Services Journal on your mobile device together with an archive of back issues.

Download the FREE Clinical Services Journal app from your device's App store

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