The SPD Hack Playbook: Streamlining Sterile Processing with Smart Tech and Team Buy-In

Welcome to Consensus, a podcast from Censis Technologies. What's going on y'all? It's Daniel Litwin, the voice of B2B, and welcome to another episode of the Consensus Podcast brought to you by Censis Technologies. It's a pleasure being here in the hot seat, talking shop on sterile processing, best practices, stories from departments, you name it, new technologies and trends that are shaping how SPDs operate and operate more efficiently. You're learning all about it here on our podcast. We're here to shed a light on the hacks that help make SPD operations efficient all the time, every time, right? And we're gonna be shining a light on those small changes that make a big impact in sterile processing. Think of them as the backstage hacks that keep the show running. And so for today, we're welcoming Amy Webb. She's manager of sterile processing at Mercy Gilbert Medical Center in Arizona for her insights. All of that and more on today's episode. So whether you're a manager, you're a frontline tech, you're an admin for a hospital system, or you just wanna learn what makes SPD tick because you're curious. Well, this is the episode. So thank you again to Amy. Let's welcome her for real. Amy Webb, thank you for joining us on the podcast. How are you doing today? I'm good. Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be here. I recently, you know, started getting into the networking field, and I feel like this is just another way to to kick start that that phase of my life or phase of my career, I guess. So But Amy, can you recap for our audience here? You know, give us an elevator pitch on your journey to managing SPD at Mercy Gilbert. How did you get into sterile processing in the first place? And what has kept you motivated to stay in that field considering it can be rather demanding, you know, can be tough to manage what you gotta manage with, you know, given resources, all that good stuff. So go ahead and dig in. What is your journey to where you're at now? You know, Daniel, I got into SPD and stayed into SPD basically for the same reason. So I got into SPD by chance because it's very unknown field and not many people, especially when I started, were jumping into SPD as they're stepping the door to healthcare. So I actually started as a nursing aid. I worked in several different hospitals throughout the valley. I also worked in long term care and I actually just stumbled into a surgery center and started working in their pre op department and recovery department as a CNA. And one day they needed help in the OR. And I said, Oh, I'll give it a go. And I started very small and then just found that I actually loved surgery. I loved the OI. I loved the feeling of the comradery. I loved how each person was pivotal in the process of providing good patient care to the surgical patients. So I had no training. I had no education at that time in SPD, and I learned everything hands on on the job. And then actually the system that I worked for pushed for us to get certified. So then I went through a formal program and got my certification. And yeah, I worked in that surgery center for ten years and then moved to Mercy Gilbert and started as the lead tech on day shift and worked my way up to manager and here I am. But, you know, I stay because, like I said, it's such an unknown field and people kind of just stumble into it. There's not a lot of information out there readily available for high school students, new to college students about sterile processing that really feel like makes them want to get into it. And so I feel very passionate about bringing up that generation and showing them that this is a great career and you don't have to just stumble into it by chance and we should want to do this. I love that. You were gravitating towards a high impact field and you sure found one. And, you know, I'm glad that With this podcast, we're able to shed more of a light on SPDs because they're often the unsung heroes of the OR. Yes. And you are a prime example of someone who has built their career in this department and learned all the tips and tricks that really go to show this is how these departments save ORs money, time, save patient lives. I mean, you name it. So what I wanna now highlight is all those hacks and all those tips and tricks you've learned over the years. And just before we mentioned that, just recap for us. Some of the different departments that you've worked in. Right? So like what different layers of SPD have you built your experience on that will help inform your hacks and tips and tricks today? Yeah, so, I mean, when I worked at the outpatient surgery center, we did obviously, you know, just strictly outpatient surgery, but it was a multi specialty hospital or surgery center. I mean, you're talking anything from, you know, cataract surgeries up into total joints. I mean, we covered just about everything and then moving into Mercy Gilbert, that was a little bit of a more broadened servicing that we cover there. So, you know, we service labor and delivery, we service several dental clinics throughout the area. We service our rehab department. We provide, you know, twenty fourseven service to the entire hospital, not just the surgical unit. And so I feel like that, you know, does also come with a lot of knowledge that needs to be had as as a manager and just The public doesn't always know that. They don't always see that, that it's not just surgery that we cover. It's the entire hospital. Perfect, thank you for the context. And so with that breadth of knowledge, Amy, let's go ahead and dig into some of these hacks, right? So I'm sure you've got a ton. I'll start by just asking you to rift through the ones that come to mind, but then maybe we can spend a little time unpacking some of those specific ones and why they're so impactful. So yeah, let's talk through these SPD hacks. What are some of your favorite little shortcuts, routines, tips and tricks, or creative fixes that have made your life in SPD and also your team's life, the whole department's life, a little easier and more effective day to day. What comes to mind? Yeah. You know, I as a manager, I've obviously also worked, like you said, in the front lines of SPD. And so along the way, I've definitely been able to make changes that I also know are beneficial because I've been in the same, in the position as my staff. I've worked in their shoes. I know exactly how they're feeling. So, also working in a hospital is a lot different than an outpatient surgery center. Outpatient surgery centers, right now are still doing manual documentation, still, you know, having handwritten count sheets sometimes. And so I've been able to take some of that knowledge and incorporate it into Mercy Gilbert. But at Mercy Gilbert specifically, I have incorporated things such as using the Stryker helmets in our department in Deacon Tam with the, you know, the cover togas that like the total joint doctors would use. We have upgraded to the advanced subscription of SensiTrack, but with that, we have not really key dotted our instruments. I mean, that's obviously a huge project. And so rather than being able to track our peel pack down, you know, with the key dotting, I have incorporated using the location in the name of the instrument. We have actually labeled all of our outside containers. All of our trays have a specific container for each tray, and that I feel like has done numbers in terms of organization. And actually organizing our account sheets in a way that has made it beneficial not only for the OR, but for the SPD staff to be able to move through quickly. So those are just off the top of my head, some things that I know myself I have made, changes to our department. Let's start with the container example, because I think this is a perfect one of, you know, in the grand scheme of things, it's a pretty simple strategy. Let's get each tray to have its own container. Yes. But executing on that means getting the right containers, labeling them correctly, making sure that there's a corresponding tray to each container, that it's always mapped to it, that both are clean, that both are treated the same way. You don't lose sight of them. I mean, so many little nuances. So I'd love to hear from you the methodology of how you implemented a strategic hack like that because it's in those nuances that I think the strategy really shines. So yeah, walk us through like how you organized your team to even get in that headspace of execution. Yeah. So actually, when I started that project, I was still the lead on day shift. I was not yet the manager and the manager and I worked really closely and and we're able to come up with that come up with that idea together. But, you know, I was working in the department alongside of the staff when we decided to make that change, definitely we had some pushback at first, but it allowed us to be able to stay organized and, to kind of visualize you know, what our needs were, what we were heavy on. But as far as implementing it was really difficult. I mean, we had to spend hours just not only making sure that we had enough containers and making sure that we had the right sizing. Also, we had containers that we wanted to have certain different color lids for. It was a big project. But in the end, by showing the staff that it was going to help us stay more organized, they were willing to you know, to be okay with the change and willing to help with the change. And I mean, it was a it was a huge project. And at the time, you know, we did not have sense track. We had a different tracking system. So then we got sense track and guess what? We had to relabel everything after that, which I'm a problem to have, I suppose. Yeah. But I feel you that, you know, I've actually now I've included my leads now in that to relabel our containers with some track labels. And so, yeah, it just, I think with any change or any type of hack, you know, we have to We basically have to prove to the staff that it's going to be beneficial for them as well. A good strategy is only as good as the people behind it that can execute on it consistently. I think that's really the magic sauce here that I'd love to get your methodological approach on here for the rest of our STD listeners is how do you as a manager rally your team around some of these big changes? Because they may understand that it's in their best interest. They may understand it's gonna benefit the department. They may not even see it as that big of a change, but building the habits of every day when we do this, we have to do it in this sequential order. We have to make sure we cover our bases here, here, here. How do you work with your team To help condition them in that direction, especially with a new process with a lot of new layers. What's your approach there for not just building buy in, but helping maintain that consistency? You know, managing is not rocket science when it comes to SPD. I feel like Anyone that works in SPD wants one thing, and they just want something that's going to make their job easier, right? Not necessarily, you know, in terms of like cutting corners, because obviously we don't wanna do that. We have processes in place for a reason, But anything outside of that, that will make their job easier. More enjoyable, if possible. I feel like that automatically Results in buying, right? But it's the things that they don't understand will make their life easier. And maybe at first seem like it's more daunting than what they're already doing. So my approach to anything is just communication, allowing like an open floor kind of conversation where my staff can voice their opinions, voice their concerns. I obviously don't implement anything without doing that first so that I can see where the trouble is going to lie and see, you know, who's who is going to be the person that pushes back the most who's going to be the person that's going to be most on board and most helpful And kind of allowing like the psychological safety of it all to give them the opportunity to speak up and not feel they're gonna be chastised or not taken seriously. That is Very important to me is making sure that my staff feel that they're being heard, feel that they're being taken seriously because a lot of times in management we're removed from our departments and always get to see every single thing that's happening every single day. And I think sometimes that leads to staff not feeling like we know where they're coming from or, you know, like, we we don't walk in their shoes. Even if I, you know, I did have, you know, twelve plus years experience working in SPD before I became a manager. They don't always know that or appreciate that. And so I think just giving them a voice is huge and not coming in and, you know, enforcing a change or enforcing a new process without fully hearing everybody's concerns and addressing them as I can. Now, obviously, you know, SPD is so mission critical that it's not like it's the department that is meant to be like a Montessori school of creative ideas. It's like there's some basics we gotta hit on and we gotta hit on them consistently. So being vertically organized, chain of command, respecting the standards you set, that's obviously key. But to that end, you know, respecting standards, will happen, you know, more frequently and with more good faith when your team is engaged in improving these strategies, seeing themselves as part of the shared mission, like you said. So, you mentioned that's important to you, but I'm curious, what does that look like in practice? Like how do you actually encourage your team to share their own hacks or their ideas? And have you seen that lead to small adjustments from your team, you know, where they propose a change and it made a significant impact. Yeah. You know, you hear in in, know, motivational speaking, the why. Everybody wants to know the why. Everybody wants you to find your why. And like as corny as that sounds, it is so true for SPD because I can implement a practice tomorrow, but if it doesn't align with the processes set by AAMI or AORN or other standards that we follow. It really it really can't go anywhere. And so first thing we always look at is, does it align with why we're doing what we're doing? Does it follow the processes, the most basic processes of SPD, most basic standards regulations. And I think by empowering them to also know those things because when you go to a program for SPD, you hear about AIMEE guidelines And not Amy Webb guidelines, Amy, guidelines, right? And so you hear about them, but you don't really, don't really get any like tactical learning with it. Like there's no book laying around in an SPD. Programs, classroom, you know, they don't typically have that. So that number one is always something that I try to revert back to is just making sure that we're we're following the proper guidelines. And if I cannot implement something, it is usually because it does not follow a guideline or regulation that we're required to follow. And that seems to most of the time deflect or, you know, deter people from maybe feeling like I'm just not making the change because I don't want to, you know? But there have been some small things over time. Like I mentioned earlier, incorporating a fully covered toga with a helmet into our deacon tam. That was one of the biggest changes that I or one of the changes that I made last year that made to the or led to the biggest, boost in morale, if want to say that. Decontam is a hot sweaty area especially in Arizona. Our temperatures outside are up to one hundred and twenty degrees sometimes. And you know, the hospital can't always keep up with that. That type of heat. So our decutam suffers and that changed, you know, hearing them day to day, day in and day out that they were feeling sweaty and hot and disgusting, change, like I said, that change led to one of the biggest boost in morale I think I've ever seen, actually. I I gotta love that. And I think that's what's so powerful about some of these hacks is that they're not just there to make the department more efficient on its basic stated goals, but it just makes for a stronger department anyways. You know what I mean? Like, it's just a a more united, a more Yes. Engaged department. So that's really that's really powerful to hear. Yep. Now, of course, not every hack has to be low tech. You mentioned, you know, y'all recently started Or you recently upgraded to the current version of SensiTrack, which is awesome. Obviously, sometimes the tools we use every day is what makes the biggest difference, and this itself becomes a hack or tip and a trick. So I'm curious in your experience, how you see technology like SenseiTrack help simplify your work in SPD and complement or work in tandem with some of these other tips and tricks you've discovered over the years? Yeah, so I recently, I took over, I'm managing a second hospital as well within the Dignity company. It's a smaller hospital, and they are still doing manual documentation. So just I had not worked in a place that had done manual documentation in a long time. And so moving back to that, I appreciate so much how SENSITRAC and, you know, other tracking systems as well, I'm sure, just make it it takes such a load off of our shoulders, and allows us to focus on the details and not really have to worry about the paperwork and, like I said, like the manual tracking of it. You take that for granted, really, once you work in SPD for a long time and work in a place that has that system set up. You take for granted how how much it does to improve your overall job and the way that you do your job. At Dignity, we also use SensiTrack to monitor our productivity. So In other systems that I worked for, productivity for SPD was based on the OR and what the OR did. And that's not always accurate because like I said before, we service the entire hospital. We don't just service the OR. This year, we were able to integrate our SensiTrack volume into our timekeeping system. And by assigning each tray a complexity level, our our timekeeping system now will pull our data from day to day, you know, daily based off of complexity levels. And that is how our productivity is actually tracked. So, I mean, that's just another small change that actually has led to such a huge impact me being able to have more staff and us just being overall more appreciated and have a bigger eye on what we're actually doing than just what the OR is doing. Absolutely. Absolutely. So I wanna connect the dots between these various tips and tricks and hone it in on a specific story. You've mentioned a few now. So if we're just gonna tread similar ground, feel free to just reiterate some of your points, but could you share a story from one of these hacks, whether it's something that you implemented like your tray and container? Trick, you know, or hack there or whether it was downstream from a tool like SensiTrack having to do with tray visibility, fewer missteps, documentation compliance, whatever it is. Can you share a story where one of these strategic day to day operational changes help prevent an issue or saved time in a big way? Let's hone in on those operational impacts here just to contextualize some of your strategies around the story. Yeah. So recently we implemented the use of the quality feedback module within SensiTrack, which is a great tool to track areas of improvement, not only just within SPD, but, you know, within the OR as well. So we started utilizing that to track our case card compliance. You know, there's several guidelines around the way instruments come to SPD after they've been used, you know, starting with point of use treatment on the field and just the way that they're transported. And so we recently started utilizing that heavily in our department to be able to offer some feedback to the OR, you know, adding another tool to visualize, okay, you know, when we're not receiving case cards that are compliant, it leads to costly repairs. It is leading to us not being able to turn over instruments in a timely fashion and just, you know, leading to an overall unorganized decontent which should be one of the most organized places, you know, in the entire department, to be honest with you. So by utilizing that tool and starting to kind of track what, how case cards were coming to us and offering feedback to the OR as to what they should look like, you know, setting a standard. And then also myself working with my director who is very, he's very appreciative of SPD. He understands that our job entails. And then also the OR manager, you know, working with them and just setting a standard for the OR to follow that will ultimately lead to less repairs and a quicker quicker turnover for them. Alright. Amy, I think we're good to start to wrap up. What we're gonna do now is look ahead a little bit. Okay. I wanna get your thoughts on looking to the future, what's an area in SPD where you'd love to see more tips, tricks and hacks from the larger community, right? An area that maybe needs a little bit more support, a little bit more innovation. Where should the industry be knocking its head together on, right? So I actually was just talking about this at C Tech when I spoke at C Tech. I was talking about GPS tracking for instrument trays. You know, my facility is small, but I know I mean, I have this problem, I can only imagine that other facility bigger facilities have this problem where, you know, a tray shows in our system that it's supposed to be where it is, where it lives, and it's not. And it's been picked up, moved, you know, not not placed back where it belonged. And so I have seen this where a certain vendor is using a small GPS tracker inside of their tray. It connects to an app that that shows them in real time exactly where that tray is located. These trackers are able to be sterilized. They are able to go through the wash. They are just it's such a great innovation that I feel like Sensitrack or, you know, any other company could really benefit from having something like that where the users have you know, you'd have to set up some type of field, obviously, like, you know, in in the sterile storage area. But just being able to track them exactly to where they are, I like, that would solve probably fifty percent of our problems at Mercy Gilbert. I, like I said, we're so small that I know bigger facilities are having that problem, but just, yeah, I guess a better visualization of where our trays are at And I like that. We we need to, yeah. Maybe, you know, we need to get innovating on some RFID technology. That's it. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Love it. I mean, yeah, look. These tools move around a lot. These trays and containers move around a lot, getting them back to where they need to be cleaned, ready, prepped, you know, launched for the next surgery, like that's key. So I love it. And then, to wrap up with some advice now too, what advice would you give to other SPD professionals who want to make their day to day more manageable? Where should they start with innovating around current processes. Because the last thing you wanna do is bring an innovative mindset to something that, is kind of like, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? FPD being so mission critical. What's your advice for balancing, this is a worthy concern, but solving it might be actually a huge ripple in the operation versus this is a great place to start to build momentum, solve that problem and carry it forward to the next one? What's your advice there? Collaborating and involving everybody that needs to be involved, even down to like infection prevention, because we don't know it all. I don't know everything there is to know about running a hospital. And so just giving everyone the opportunity to speak up and giving everyone the opportunity to contribute to the change is I mean, that's how I manage my department. And I'm not saying it's perfect. I'm not saying that, you know, my management style is the best style, but I I feel that it has really given my team what they need to be successful by allowing them to collaborate and allowing them to have their own voice. So, truthfully, not a lot of people know about SPD. It's a very unknown area and an unknown service. And so The more the more we can give the people on the front lines a voice, think the more well known we'll become. All right, Amy. Well, I think that does it for today's episode. In some ways, we're only scratching the surface of useful SPD tips and tricks. So as you continue to put SenseiTrack to work and find some new hacks that improve your workflows. We'll need to bring you back for a follow-up. Until then, folks, thank you for tuning in today. Again, we've been chatting with Amy Webb, manager of sterile processing at Mercy Gilbert Medical Center in Arizona. Amy, if folks want to get in touch, learn a little bit from you, maybe spark some discussion, SPD Pro to SPD Pro, how can they get in touch? Yeah. So you can find me on LinkedIn. First. I'm on LinkedIn or my email. It's amy. Webcommon spirit dot org if you you wanna reach out and connect. I love to connect with people in the industry. Awesome. And, hey, look out for clips of this podcast Yes. On Amy's LinkedIn. We're building up that LinkedIn presence. I like to see it. I like to see it. Thank you so much for your insights today. Again, everyone, this episode is such a great reminder that while SPD is full of big responsibilities, it's often those small tricks, those small changes that can have the most outsized impact. So, Amy, thank you for giving us some stories and tips and tricks to ground all of that. It's been a pleasure talking today and looking forward to future episodes. Thank you, Danielle. And thank you everybody at Censis for having me. I enjoyed my time here. And thank you everyone for tuning in to another episode of Consensus. To our listeners, if you're looking for ways to make your own department run smoother, if you wanna explore how solutions like SensiTrack can be your own SPD hack to help you save time, stay compliant, etcetera, right? Or focus more on what matters most, patient safety, Right? Make sure you reach out to us at censis.com. But also, if you're just looking for more SPD insights, hot takes, and strategies, Make sure you're checking out the Consensus podcast. Find that on our website, censis.com, or subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. And, again, that's Censis, c e n s I s, dot com. All right, folks. Thanks so much for joining us. We'll see you on the next episode of the podcast. I'm Daniel Littwin, the voice of B2B. This has been another episode of Consensus.