The role of the CSSD (Central Sterile Services Department) is extremely important to clinical environments. This is because, besides offering adequate treatment to each item that arrives at the sector, it contributes directly to patient safety.
Therefore, it is essential to know the treatments for each material involved, coordinate the members of this department, evaluate the quality of the activities performed, and foresee changes that could compromise the service.
The CSSD department must also constantly keep up to date about new forms of microbiological contamination, from body fluids and chemical agents that may enter the hospital environment. Do you want to know more about the importance of the CSSD department in surgical operations? Then read on!
What does the Central Sterile Services Department consist of?
It is an extremely important service in the hospital environment because it is the place where medical materials are processed and treated for reuse on other occasions.
Medical products are those classified as: critical, semi-critical, and non-critical items. Those that fall into the first category have been exposed to sterile tissues or to the patient's vascular system, and therefore have a greater potential for virulence.
Semi-critical items, on the other hand, were previously exposed to non-intact skin or intact mucous membranes (such as respiratory), to items used in endoscopy, or to other products that will be evaluated by the nurse.
Non-critical medical products come into contact only with the patient's intact skin. Therefore, they offer less risk of exposure to the patient and to the employees who need them to provide care.
According to this classification, such items received a differentiated treatment, because for some there is a higher probability of being encrusted with pathogenic microorganisms and even in sporulated form.
Another fundamental point of vital action in the CSSD is to develop a rational flow of incoming and outgoing products so that there is no physical encounter between items that have already been processed and those in which the process has not been started. This is because there may be a greater possibility of contamination.
Not to mention that the CSSD must be located close to the environments that need it most. Surgical and obstetric blocks that constantly perform surgeries, mainly in urgency/emergency services, are some examples.
