Smart Cleaning Routines Reduce Servicing in Boston Practices

Whether you own a medical practice or clinic in the Greater Boston area or somewhere else in the northeastern region, instrument processing and cleaning are essential wherever you go. Medical offices, dental offices, hospitals, outpatient surgery centers – they all have one thing in common: a need to clean, disinfect, and sterilize instruments. Proper maintenance of equipment, including the use of Greater Boston autoclave repair services for required servicing and testing, can help your equipment to work effectively and efficiently, providing a long-term return on your investment. New equipment can be purchased through your local autoclave repair technician in the Boston area as well, including new and reconditioned or used autoclave sales.

Create a Central Processing Area
The best way to ensure that everything gets processed correctly is to have a central instrument processing area within your office setting. This space is where all of the cleaning, disinfecting, and sterilizing should occur to provide better control and safety. Four primary areas of this space, according to the US Center for Disease Control (CDC), should include a space for receiving, cleaning, and decontaminating instruments; an area for preparation and packaging of instruments; an area for sterilization processing; and an area for sterile storage.

In addition to taking all of these measures, it is also important to know how to properly care for your equipment to prevent costly repairs, downtime, and replacement costs. If you neglect your essential sterilization equipment, it will cost time and money that most practices or clinics cannot afford. Also, improper care of equipment, sterilization fluids, and ongoing maintenance could also damage your instruments, requiring early replacement of essential reusable “multi-use” instruments.

The Cleaning Process
While it depends on the type of medical or dental instruments that you need to sterilize, a couple of different methods may be used for the cleaning process. It might seem redundant to clean instruments before sterilizing them, but this helps to remove any organic or inorganic debris that might still be present. If the debris is not removed before the use of an autoclave or other sterilization equipment, it can interfere with the inactivation of microbes and compromise the entire process used to sterilize instruments.

Debris can be removed by using the following methods:

• scrubbing the instrument manually with a brush using a surfactant or detergent and water
• using automated equipment, such as a waster-disinfector or ultrasonic cleaner
• chemical agents, such as soaking in a disinfectant or detergent or through the utilization of an enzymatic cleaner

Once the instruments are cleaned, they must be rinsed with water to remove any residue from the cleaners or chemical agents. The use of equipment, which can be purchased through the same company that offers new and used autoclave sales, to provide automated cleaning can increase productivity. Automated cleaning does not require presoaking or scrubbing, which can improve the effectiveness of cleaning and reduce exposure to blood and body fluids for staff. Overall, automated cleaning equipment is safer, more efficient, and more effective than manual cleaning methods.

Changing Fluids and Cleaning Equipment
Most practices and clinics use a pre-soak method for instruments throughout the day until they can be placed into autoclave equipment for complete sterilization at the end of business. If manual cleaning cannot be performed right away, placing instruments into a container where they can be soaked with an enzymatic cleaner or disinfectant will prevent patient material from drying, which will make cleaning easier. This fluid must regularly be changed to prevent damage to scalpels and other materials, which can become dull and require more sharpening over time. When instruments become damaged, this increases the need for replacement, which can be costly.

Cleaning the equipment that you use to sterilize instruments is important too. Work with your trusted Greater Boston autoclave repair service to set a maintenance schedule that is custom designed to keep your equipment in good working order and ensure that you are compliant with industry and government regulations. When you work with a reputable autoclave repair technician in Boston and the surrounding area, you ensure that any investments you make in new and reconditioned or used autoclave sales will offer the best possible return on your investment, helping your instruments to last longer without needing to be replaced so frequently.

Stat Bio-Medical Sales & Service in Massachusetts
If you are in need of professional servicing or repairs of the equipment you use to sterilize instruments in the New England region, you can trust the team of technicians at Stat Bio-Medical Sales & Services. We are a Greater Boston autoclave repair service, but we also perform repairs, maintenance, servicing, and offer sales for a variety of other essential bio-medical equipment. If you would like to speak with an autoclave repair technician in Boston for your Massachusetts practice or clinic, give us a call at 1-877-995-1117. We are an authorized dealer for most of the well-known and reputable name brand equipment in the North East USA region.