Biological Monitoring Intervals for Steris Units

[Uprooted Scrub]

Good day, all!

The OR at my facility has two Steris units. As far as I know, they are monitoring them with biological indicators monthly. Is there a standard out there in rule land that prescribes monitoring frequency for the Steris units?

Thanks.

BJ

[sleepless]

I'm not sure what everyone else does but I do believe that you should be running a culture at least weekly. I know that there are many different views but I would err on the side of caution and run it a bit more often. If your steris unit continues to run loads without any visible problems it may not detect an issue with proper microbial kill.

[Guest]

AORN recommends "at least weekly, preferrably daily" testing of the STERIS SYSTEM 1 sterilizer, and I have some info from STERIS directly that says they recommend testing it "every day" it is used.

[Guest]

I think that is correct. ASP recommendations are once daily. Usually do ours with the first load daily so theirs no confusion.

[Uprooted Scrub]

Thank-you all for your replies!

[STEVO]

We have policy for 1 weekly. The thing to be aware of, especially in larger institutions is to be consistent. You should have the same policy for all departments using Steris. Regulatory agencies will view it as a single function.

[Uprooted Scrub]

Thank you, Stevo!

[sklacik]

The manufacturer of the product should be consulted. They should have recommendations based on their FDA-cleared claims.

[sonny1388]

Our policy is to run a biological on days that the machine is used. However, we were having trouble making sure that this was being done on days where we weren't using the machines for scheduled cases, but were using them to run items during call time when the OR staff was responsible for running the intstrumentation. In response, we now run a biological everyday, whether or not the machine is going to be used. This system works out really well, as we know pretty quickly if there is a problem with the machine not being able to function correctly.

[Uprooted Scrub]

Thanks again for all the answers. Everyone please have an awesome Christmas and New Years!!

[HRJohn]

.


Here's another argument for running the BIs more frequently:

If you have a positive BI which results in a recall being issued, you must go back to the last negative BI to determine what items must be recalled.

Can you imagine having to recall items back an entire month to your last negative BI? Or even an entire week?

What a nightmare!!


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