Using Efficiency Tasks and Maintenance Logs to Optimize SPD Operations

 

Kelly Swails, Clinical Business Manager at Censis, and Desiree Acedo, Supervisor Sterile Processing Department at Centennial Hills Hospital Medical Center, discuss the complex requirements of a surgical task and how efficiency tasks (EFTs) support the role.

Recent Episodes

Unannounced surveys are no longer the exception in healthcare—they’re the norm. Accrediting bodies increasingly expect sterile processing departments (SPDs) to demonstrate consistent compliance, real-time documentation, and reliable adherence to manufacturers’ instructions for use on any given day, not just during audit season. Joint Commission survey data continue to show that high-level disinfection and sterilization practices…

Sterile Processing Departments (SPDs) remain the backbone of safe surgical care, yet across the country, they’re still routinely left out of early decision-making around products, construction, staffing, and case planning. As hospitals juggle tighter margins, higher patient acuity, and growing procedural demands, the consequences of excluding SPD voices become unmistakably real—showing up in daily…

In healthcare, patient safety and operational efficiency often depend on invisible systems working perfectly in the background. One of those systems—water quality—has quietly become a defining factor in sterile processing success. With new standards such as AAMI ST108 setting stricter expectations, hospitals, and SPDs (Sterile Processing Departments) are rethinking how they monitor, manage, and measure…