Sterile Technician

Position Summary: The central sterile technician independently performs routine processing of medical instrument sterilization; troubleshooting of equipment; equipment maintenance, checks and repairs; monitoring of chemicals; and distribution of instrument trays.

Responsibilities:

• Ensures personal protective equipment (PPE) is worn.
• Receives and separates instruments according to process required (manual or automated washers).
• Washes, rinses and decontaminates patient care equipment and heat sensitive instruments.
• Loads baskets with instruments and starts decontamination process.
• Chooses proper sterilization method (low temperature sterilization method - heat sensitive and steam sterilization).
• Assembles, strings and inventories instrument tray according to protocol; wraps items according to protocol using wrap or peel pouch.
• Loads sterilizer racks.
• Documents and labels items sterilized.
• Applies required biological spore test pack.
• Loads and starts sterilization cycle; and reports missing, broken or faulty instruments to management.
• Removes test pack from sterilized load.
• Logs date, time, load number, sterilizer number, and implantable items included.
• Places spore in incubator and starts time period for release of items.
• Reads and documents incubator results.
• Releases items for use if spore test is negative.
• Follows recall policy and procedures if a positive biological spore is detected.
• Distributes processed items to appropriate user departments and receives outdated items for reprocessing.
• Inventories trauma tray.
• Replenishes and documents items pulled from backup inventory stock for trauma tray.
• Reports pulled and needed inventory to supervisor.
• Completes the following steps to trouble shoot equipment breakdowns: monitors temperature gauges to ensure proper performance; monitors temperatures to ensure chemicals are performing as designed; contacts maintenance if repairs are needed; and works closely with the machines in order to recognize potential problems and to learn to repair small problems.
• Completes the following steps for equipment maintenance, checks and repairs by: checking equipment for normal operations, observes meters and gauges, and makes adjustments necessary for normal and efficient operation; starts and stops equipment to ensure all safety equipment is working; monitors temperature gauges to ensure proper performance; monitors temperatures to ensure chemicals are performing as designed; contacts maintenance/vendor service representatives if repairs are needed; works closely with the machines in order to recognize potential problems and learns to repair small problems; and fills out work requests when needed.
• Monitors chemicals for adequate inventory supply.
• Chemical rotation and disposal.
• Logs and dates new inventory.
• Checks for pump efficiency and possible leaks and spills.
• Notifies vendor service representative of preventative maintenance on pumps and tubing damage.
• Checks for proper chemical dispensing to ensure a safe environment

Qualifications:

Required:

• Certified Registered Central Service Technician (CRCST) Certification (Required within 2 years of hire).
• Additional certification may be required for certain patient care settings or populations.
• Specific information and the timeframe in which such certification must be attained will be provided by the department director/manager/supervisor at time of hire/transfer into department.

Preferred:

• High school graduate or equivalence.
• Experience in medical instrument sterilization.

Infection Control: Initial and Ongoing training in dealing with infection control. Trainings could include but are not limited to, blood borne pathogens, bodily fluids and bio hazardous materials as it applies to your daily work environment.

Patient Interaction: No Contact

HIPAA: This position will have access to the following Protected Health Information in order to carry out the duties related to their position at Hays Medical Center based on the following criteria:
Primary - required (routine) to do the job;
Secondary - required for the job, but mostly be exception; and
None - no approved access

Description of Information
Primary:
Patient Demographic Information (information used to identify a person): Name, Date of Birth, Address, Race, Marital Status, Religion

Coding Information (clinical information that is in (alpha) numeric format): ICD-9 Codes, Rev Codes, CPT Codes

Financial Information/Insurance (information related to insurance, billing and payment): Billing Information, Payer Name, Payer ID, Account Balances, Plan Elements Covered, Payment Information, Payment Rates

Clinical Information (information that describes a patient's health status): Diagnosis, Reports/Medical Notes, Test Results, Problem List, Procedures, History and Physical