It’s budget time –
Don’t short-change your cssd

he economy is still putting a pinch on US businesses – and nowhere is that more evident than in the healthcare segment. A record number of hospitals are still operating in the red, and the fiscal outlook (at least for the foreseeable future) isn’t exactly rosy.

While most healthcare professionals, including those who function in the Central Sterile Supply Department, recognize the need for fiscal prudence, it’s imperative that healthcare executives also understand that being responsible during times of economic hardship involves far more than tightening the purse strings. Budgets, of course, shouldn’t be blown, but they also must not be restricted to the point where quality and safety suffer. Unfortunately, it appears that some haven’t gotten the memo (or, in the very least, could use a friendly reminder).

The 2010 IAHCSMM Annual Meeting in San Diego brought about many opportunities to speak with CSSD professionals from all corners of the country – and all parts of the globe. One common theme that crept into at least a dozen informal conversations: hospitals are cutting education budgets and other unquestionably worthy expenses (including adequate instrumentation to keep up with increasing surgical volume and outdated, poorly functioning processing equipment). A number of attendees noted that they travel to educational meetings on their own dime, and some even admitted that they commonly purchase their own textbooks and other educational materials to stay abreast of industry standards and advancing technologies.

Such dedication is undeniably admirable, as it underscores many CSSD professionals’ commitment to building knowledge and skill sets and promoting quality and safety within the discipline. Still, the fact that many hospitals aren’t allocating the funds for such fundamental expenses might indicate that C-level executives are failing to recognize the critical role that educated, empowered, well-trained employees plays in ensuring quality and safety.

Those who work in a facility that has clamped down on essential expenses, such as education, certification or even necessary capital equipment purchases, should begin building a case for why these resources are so vital to the fulfillment of the facility’s core mission.

Among the most important things CSSD professionals can do is develop a more productive partnership with their facility’s infection control preventionists. That’s because ICPs can help validate the role that CSSD plays in infection prevention and, perhaps, help justify the allocation of more funds for CSSD education and other key expenses. Of course, reducing unnecessary expenses for healthcare facilities should also include a plan to reduce infections. After all, infections cost hospitals dearly in terms of money and reputation. Put simply, CSSD training provides facilities with an opportunity to leverage more support for direct caregivers, so they can concentrate on the patient. It also helps reduce dollars spent replacing expensive items that could become damaged because they were improperly processed and handled.

Of course, finance executives won’t be swayed by anecdotes or emotional pleas. They want numbers and solid data, so CSSD professionals had better be prepared to provide it. Documenting the cost of treating one surgical site infection, for example, and recruiting the assistance of the ICP to provide your facility’s SSI prevalence rate will go a long way toward promoting the CSSD’s needs – and contributions. CSSD professionals should also ask for written documentation from instrument vendors regarding device mishaps that could have been avoided through staff education, improved maintenance schedules, and increased inventory, and they should also perform tests to assess the effectiveness of your washers and sterilizers (and then document and share the results). If immediate use ("flash") sterilization is becoming increasingly common in the OR, they should rely on the standards to back up their concerns and use hard data to explain that investing in more instrumentation will cost far less than treating infections and battling potential litigation on the back-end.