Confident, efficient teams are the foundation of a successful CSSD, yet recruiting, training and retaining skilled technicians continues to be a challenge. So, how can technology support quality staff training and increase efficiencies in technical teams?

Lack of skilled staff is a real issue

CSSD technicians are responsible for managing surgical inventory, including handling and maintaining surgical sets and identifying broken or corroded instruments for repair or replacement. However, due to workforce pressures, recruitment and retention of highly skilled staff is difficult, and so many CSSDs are forced to examine how to achieve more with fewer people. On top of this, it takes at least three to six months – and approximately £7500-£10000 – to train a new sterile service technician.

Adding to these pressures are ever-evolving surgical advancements, with new and optimized surgical instruments making their way into the operating theatre, via CSSDs, every day. Keeping pace with this progress is not easy for CSSD managers or technicians, and training - against a backdrop of overstretched healthcare systems - can fall through the cracks and be deprioritized. This absence of training causes knowledge gaps and impacts the confidence of staff, causing mistakes, missing instruments and delays.

Minimizing errors

Under-trained technicians are more likely to make mistakes. From struggling to identify new instruments or spot broken equipment, to the incorrect or inefficient packing of trays. Missing or malfunctioning surgical instruments account for up to 58% of surgical delays and replacing a single surgical instrument takes approximately seven minutes, costing up to $259. These delays, at their worst, can even cause canceled operations and add to already long waiting lists.

With up-to-date staff knowledge and greater confidence, staff can pack trays with more efficiency and accuracy, maximizing the lifetime and value of instruments, and minimizing associated delays and costs. But despite the challenges, finding appropriate training resources that keep pace with the development of new regulations and surgical instruments to upskill and educate staff is difficult. This is where technology can help.

Upskilling with technology

Our technology can help upskill CSSD staff in numerous ways:

• Comprehensive training – helping team members get to grips with new technologies and terminologies as quickly as possible.
  
  
• Supporting technicians – automatic identification of surgical instruments can help staff identify the correct surgical instruments, and spot errors, faster and more confidently
  
  
• Useful insights – insights gathered from instruments used in surgery can guide technicians toward more efficient and cost-effective tray packing
  
  

Good technology should work with existing workflows to increase efficiency and reduce costs and delays. Our computer vision platform does all the above: empowering staff with the training, confidence and technological insights to do their job better. Additionally, more efficient technicians lead to higher capacity teams, helping managers balance cost-saving with sustaining, and enhancing, the reputation of their departments.