Surgical Directions announced the launch of their Rapid SPD Diagnostics product alongside an accompany whitepaper about improving sterile processing across health systems. PR Newswire has the press release.

The whitepaper examines two assessments of two different facilities' sterile processing practices. Both of the assessments -- in a high-volume academic medical center and a large, decentralized ambulatory clinic network -- revealed similar themes, especially around topics like operational variation, governance fragmentation, workforce competency gaps, documentation deficiencies, environmental infrastructure risks, and limited performance visibility.

The paper argues that many organizations have expanded procedural capacity faster than sterile processing governance, operational standardization, and workforce infrastructure have evolved. This leads to certain similar problems that recur across health systems, regardless of their size. 

Thus, Rapid SPD Diagnostics is Surgical Directions' attempt to evaluate the broader operational ecosystem surrounding sterile processing performance. Assessment areas include workflow design; instrument transport and containment; sterile storage integrity; competency validation and workforce education; and documentation and traceability.

The tool is meant to give visibility into operational variation across procedural settings; aid with identification of systemic trends and regulatory vulnerabilities; provide prioritized improvement opportunities aligned to organizational risk; and more.