7 Common Causes for Failure of a Bowie-Dick Test Written by: Amit Gupta Sterilization departments have one of the most important responsibilities within a healthcare facility — ensuring that all surgical instruments and other reusable equipment are sterilized and safe to use during upcoming procedures. Without these services, operations at hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers would grind to a halt. In laboratory settings (especially in ones that carry […] Tweet Like Share
Why To Autoclave Liquids With a Load Probe Written by: Amit Gupta In our previous Sterilization Cycles post on the F0 Cycle, we briefly reviewed the process for autoclaving liquids with a load probe. This post further discusses the benefits of using a load probe for sterilization validation. A load probe is a temperature sensing probe located inside the laboratory’s autoclave chamber. It is configured such that […] Tweet Like Share
Common Steam Autoclave Maintenance Questions, Answered Written by: Amit Gupta Maintaining steam autoclaves in proper working order improves productivity, reduces downtime, extends the life of the autoclave, and helps to ensure overall safety in the workplace. So, to help you maintain your autoclave, we wrote about the importance of autoclave maintenance and shared some basic tips to maintain your equipment in a prior post. In this post, we take the conversation a little deeper, answering common maintenance questions and identifying the critical components on an autoclave that should be inspected periodically by a trained service provider. This is not an exhaustive list of all the autoclave components that should be inspected but merely the major ones. Read more → Tweet Like Share
No Space for a Large Bulk Autoclave? 4 Reasons to Consider the MiniBulk™ Written by: Amit Gupta There are many different types of autoclaves available on the market – from simple economy sterilizers, to advanced BSL-3 biocontainment models, to large laboratory autoclaves. Despite the variety, a perfect fit may not be easy to come by. Laboratories must find a balance between valuable floor space they are willing to commit for a unit […] Tweet Like Share
Consolidated Sterilizer Systems Announces New MiniBulk™ Large Sterilizer Written by: Amit Gupta July 10, 2013 , Boston, MA – Consolidated Sterilizer Systems is pleased to announce the launch of their new large sterilizer, the MiniBulk. The MiniBulk accommodates a higher volume of contaminated material than a small or medium sterilizer, while taking up less space than a full bulk sterilizer. “The MiniBulk is essentially a happy medium between a […] Tweet Like Share
7.12.23 Cordyceps Sterilization: How to Kill “The Last of Us” Parasite → In HBO’s recent adaptation of “The Last of Us,” a popular action-adventure video game, life as we know it is upended by a parasitic fungus that transforms its human hosts into zombies. The culprit? Cordyceps, a real-life genus of fungus which is best known for infecting insects (most famously ants) in much the same manner […]
6.30.23 Top 13 Sterile Processing Mistakes in Hospitals → When it comes to ensuring patient safety in hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), the Sterile Processing Department (SPD) is among the last lines of defense. It’s this department’s sole responsibility to make sure that reusable instruments and devices are properly decontaminated, sterilized, and ultimately safe to use in future procedures — protecting patients from […]
6.22.23 Sterilization vs. High-Level and Low-Level Disinfection [a 3-Point Comparison] → In a 1939 paper, microbiologist Earle H. Spaulding introduced a system for determining which medical devices and instruments needed disinfection and which ones required sterilization. In it, he proposed that critical instruments would need to be subjected to more stringent disinfection protocols than non-critical patient care items. Today, this framework is fittingly known as Spaulding […]