Homepage CS/SPD Manager

My name is Tim Brooks I am the Director of Surgical Services Materials Management CSSPD at Yuma Regional Medical Center in Yuma Arizona.

My scope of management is the heart of our hospitals infection control support including Central Sterilization and Supply Processing & Distribution (CSSPD).

After 23 years of serving patient care providers I feel the need to share experiences and ideas that have made a positive impact on patient care at our hospital.

This web site is not high tech just simple easy to navigate web pages utilizing power point presentations and pictures to get my message out.

I will from time to time address vendors and products, however, I do not receive any funding or payments for my endorsements.

We are starting to see a more direct shift toward patient outcomes due to a vast number of reports about hospital acquired infections and how they affect almost two-million people annually, resulting in more then 80,000 deaths in the United States alone.

This incredible number represents the fourth leading cause of death in the US today receiving little public outrage FOR NOW.

With the soon to be imposed CMS changes and the possibility of physicians NOT receiving payment for services you can bet that hospital sterilization departments will become a target along with every possible link to hospital acquired infections that can be tracked.

The legal system will one day depose us as experts and want to know why we are not all on the same page.  Our industry from the governing bodies to the standards writers and let’s not forget the vendors/manufacturers have created an opportunity for lawyers to have a field day at our expense.       

The FDA, AAMI, AORN, OSHA, AIA, and IAHCSMM need to understand that they do not provide consistent recommendations or guidelines that support the manufacturers written instructions.  The manufacturers of surgical instruments, cleaning agents, and washers must be required to provide defined instructions and evidence based studies that support clear directions.

The consignment ortho industry have been given a pass regarding the decontamination of the highly complexed instrument sets. We are more focused on longer sterilization times rather then how to properly clean the multi-layer trays with more nooks and crannies then a washer can get to.

We currently do not have proven hospital evidence based studies to support most if not all that we do...which is one of the reasons we are not taken seriously and do not receive the respect we so desire.        

We as sterile processing professionals must take every step possible to insure that what we do, does not add to this number of hospital acquired infections report annually.

Moreover, we need to insure that we are not currently adding to it.  Our industry is filled with more “short cuts”, “my way of doing things”, and “we do it different here” then our profession should allow. 

I heard a VP of a well known healthcare company say that "if you have been in one hospital then you have been in one hospital, no two are alike".  This statement has become my mantra!

Major healthcare suppliers and manufacturers know this too well and profit from our lack of consistencies.  They are very much entrenched in our governing bodies so much so that they are allowed to advertise on our international web-sites and participate in governing our profession.  I find it very disturbing that I cannot discuss a new product on the IAHCSMM open forum or even share the success of one.

We need to share our thoughts, experiences, and be able to evaluate a new product as a profession.  As it is the vendors are calling the shots and controling our profession.