The effectiveness of a program to reduce the rate of flash sterilization.

Abstract

Flash sterilization of surgical instruments has been a common practice, but patient safety and quality assurance health care groups have recently recommended minimizing its use. Our goals were to describe the implementation and effectiveness of our institution's program for reducing the flash sterilization rate of instruments used for total hip and knee arthroplasties. We reviewed flash sterilization logs of all hip and knee arthroplasties from the program's implementation in July 2009 through August 2010 (N = 555) and calculated the monthly percentage of cases using flash sterilization. From the first to the last month, the amount of flash sterilization decreased significantly (P < .05): 6 of 34 to 0 of 41, respectively. Our results show that the rate of flash sterilization can be reduced with this strategic program.