At the HSPA Annual Conference in Louisville, Kentucky, healthcare professional Hannah Schroeder, who specializes in clinical education, presented a workshop aimed at enriching sterile processing departments (SPDs) through comprehensive understanding of quality management systems (QMS). Her focus was on AAMI ST90 – a powerful, yet less recognized standard that supports ST79 and ST91. Schroeder led discussions on quality stakeholder identification, the construction of robust quality processes, and ways to validate outputs delivered to customer bases such as operating rooms and clinics, eventually benefiting patients.
Schroeder aimed to simplify the QMS frameworks, offering participants tools to outline key components, discern stakeholders, and assess the quality of daily SPD team outputs. Central to her discourse was the importance of identifying and utilizing a variety of quality contributors – from infection prevention experts and facility management to IT departments and suppliers. By doing so, SPDs can harness multidisciplinary support for enhanced departmental outcomes.
The workshop also explored the value of QMS data in encapsulating a compelling narrative. Schroeder used real-world instances to demonstrate the power of QMS data in identifying performance, highlighting service gaps, and ascertaining staffing requirements. Advocating for contemporary SPDs, she stressed the necessity of QMS to provide an empirical foundation for data-backed decisions, resource rationales, and departmental improvement.
In the face of increasing demands for justification of resource allocation in SPDs, attendees left the workshop equipped with practical insights on interdepartmental support building and leveraging quality data for impactful change. Schroeder helped illustrate the potential of QMS as a strong ally for SPDs, pointing the way toward cost-effective decisions and improved organizational outcomes.