The Key to
Traceability
What does it take?
By recording some key facts it is you can provide comprehensive traceability. This information includes:
- Which decontamination load items were washed in.
- Which sterilisation load items were sterilised in.
- For stock, identification such as; batch number, use by date, etc.
- Which patient(s) used the item.
- Any item must be uniquely identified.
- Any item must be uniquely identified each time it is decontaminated/ sterilised.
Hospitals use various methods like barcodes, etched markings, or serial numbers to label items for identification. This helps you track these items between uses. Some items are tracked individually, while others are traced to a sterilization batch.
The level of tracking differs between hospitals. you may keep instruments together on trays without scanning each one separately, or alternatively separate instruments after surgery and need precise identification to put them back in the right tray. Individual instrument identification is vital in these cases.
With this information, you can:
- Track unclean items back to their decontamination or sterilisation batch and find all other unclean items.
- Track all items from a particular batch ahead to the patients that need them
- Track all items that were used on a specific patient.
- Track these items back to the patients to find the source of an infection.
- Track these items forward to the patients to find out who may have been infected.
CJD Reporting
CJD reporting requires being able to track any instruments used on an infected patient. This includes either:
- Tracking items back to previous patients to identify the source of infection.
- Tracking items forwards to successive patients to determine who else may have been infected.
In both cases, it is critical that you can uniquely identify instruments within the system especially all high-risk instruments. It is also important that you have a process in place that ensures that the same instrument is kept with the same tray.
