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In this, particularly, as in all things, you hold both the primary and final responsibility for ensuring the standard of care for your patient; as has been stated repeatedly here, anything of this nature coming into the facility for use in the facility is unproven and must be treated as if it is unprocessed/unsterilized. Not only can you not ensure safety otherwise, but if there was any question in future, relative to a patient's outcome, you would have no means and no in-house record of tracking to substantiate the condition of the equipment that you used on your patient. Any LHRM, including myself, will advise you as previously submitted in this posting by others, that you must perform all steps yourself as surety.

Julie White (Administrator / Director / Manager / Owner / Executive Officer) at May 4, 2012 (12:40 pm)

We treat all loaner instruments as if they are contaminated and completely reprocess them.

Eloise W. (OR Manager/Supervisor) at May 3, 2012 (10:03 am)

Loaner sets should always be treated as contaminated no matter where it came from. The equipment should be inspected and reprocessed accordingly. At our facility we will even ask the represenatives for any special instructions/parameters for any speciality equipment and file that in our log as well if needed.

Elizabeth N. (Other) at May 1, 2012 (2:18 pm)

We always reprocess loaner sets being brought in by vendors. This is in accordance with AORN Reccommended Practices and Standards under Sterilization Recommendation X. There is no way to control the conditions under which it was processed , packaged, and shipped by the vendor. Too often we have found loaner sets to be dirty. It is just good practice to reprocess.

Robert H. (OR Manager/Supervisor) at May 1, 2012 (2:10 pm)

Our policy is that anything coming from anyone/anywhere other than one of our own facilities must be disassembled, decontaminated and then sterilized before it is used in surgery.
Being a multi facility hospital system we do allow sharing among our locations. Of course all proper protocol must be followed. Wrappers must be checked, dust covers in place etc.

Stephen Small (Other) at May 1, 2012 (1:58 pm) [last edited on May 1, 2012 (2:00 pm)]

We have found bone residue in reamer shafts in trays that were supposedly processed and sterilized elsewhere. Absolutely treat them all as contaminated.

Dick Farr (Administrator/Director/Manager/Owner/Exec. Officer) at May 1, 2012 (1:50 pm)

We have found bone residue in reamer shafts in trays that were supposedly processed and sterilized elsewhere. Absolutely treat them all as contaminated.

Dick Farr (Administrator/Director/Manager/Owner/Exec. Officer) at May 1, 2012 (1:49 pm)

Agreed with all facilities who reprocess from the cleaning/decontamination, to the assembling, inspection, prep&pack, to the sterilization. It is "our" responsibility to make sure that "anything" going to the OR has gone through the "complete" process. To have to stand in a court of law and answer.."well, we thought it was clean because it came to us sterile", is a complete disregard for our patients.

deborah pennell (Other) at May 1, 2012 (1:47 pm)

I would say not only resterilized, but completly reprocessed. We usually do not know where and how they were used, and we don't know how they were processed (it is possible that the tray was just decontaminated, people sometimes are also pressed for quick return so washing might be questionable too). The instruments must be inspected prior to sterilization, checked for proper working condition and completness. Also most of the sterilization wraps and packaging is not meant for transport, bouncing around in the trunk of the car, or rapid temperature changes.

MATTHEW LYKOWSKI (Director, Surgical Services/Director of Nursing) at May 1, 2012 (1:27 pm)

When any instrument or sets come into our facility we treat them, no matter what kind, as contaminated. They are processed in decontam as if they had just come from our own OR.

l. scherer (Other) at May 1, 2012 (1:10 pm)

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