Sterile Processing Coordinator

About the role

The Sterile Processing Coordinator oversees and coordinates the activities of the Sterile Processing department and service line, ensuring new employees are properly oriented and trained, monitoring work flow and volume, and reviewing and maintaining department supply needs.

Responsibilities

• Coordinates and assigns, based on the acuity level of the Technician, processing services that are efficiently organized.
• Serves as the primary resource for staff in all areas of service that the department performs.
• Serves as a role model and mentor, facilitating teamwork, working in conjunction with the OR staff, to provide timely sterile products, trays, and case carts where applicable.
• Maintains consistent and continuous workflow between the OR and Sterile Processing.
• Communicates in an active, positive, and effective manner to all interprofessional health care team members, listens and responds to the ideas of others. Coaches staff in effective verbal, non-verbal and written communication. Initiates recommendations, collaborating with management, for improvement of employee engagement score.
• Coordinates the daily interface between sterile processing, surgery, and materials management as well as other departments within and outside of Houston Methodist to ensure that supplies and instruments are available as needed for service lines, as appropriate.
• Anticipates needs by ensuring that all supplies or instrumentation not routinely available within the department are obtained and ready prior to scheduled surgery cases.
• Plans and monitors staffing levels to ensure appropriate staffing at all times to provide excellent service. Regulates scheduling and department staff assignments based on the needs of the department. Provides daily reporting to management of needs, issues to be addressed, and all important information necessary to ensure department success.
• Serves as the primary quality assurance resource for the department through periodic set audits. Reviews and revises, as appropriate, policies and procedures which reflect knowledge of industry standards and recommended practices for sterile processing. Assures department performance follows Houston Methodist policies and procedures and guidelines/standards from pertinent regulatory agencies.
• Ensures accurate tracking of all instrumentation in conjunction with the SP Liaison for specific service lines. Maintains and records accurate recordings of sterile area environment requirements per Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI), OSHA, and/or Association of Operating Room Nurses (AORN) guidelines per institutional policies.
• Maintains and documents all parameters for all types of sterilizers to ensure proper function (Steam, Ethylene Oxide (ETO) and Low Temperature Hydrogen Peroxide).
• Maintains and monitors the department budget, adjusting staffing levels against budgeted targets and keeping management informed and involved, as appropriate, to proactively address staffing or other employee issues.
• Collaborates with Materials Management to identify supply needs and ordering of non-sterile items in need of processing.

Qualifications

• High School diploma or equivalent education (examples include: GED, verification of homeschool equivalency, partial or full completion of post-secondary education, etc.)
• Six years of Sterile Processing experience in an acute care hospital
• Sterile Processing certification: CSCST or CSPDT
• Instrument Specialist certification: CIS or CSIS

Skills and Abilities

• Demonstrates the skills and competencies necessary to safely perform the assigned job, determined through on-going skills, competency assessments, and performance evaluations
• Sufficient proficiency in speaking, reading, and writing the English language necessary to perform the essential functions of this job, especially with regard to activities impacting patient or employee safety or security
• Ability to effectively communicate with patients, physicians, family members and co-workers in a manner consistent with a customer service focus and application of positive language principles
• Advanced knowledge of infection control, decontamination, and sterilization techniques
• Knowledge and ability to operate, troubleshoot, and train staff on all departmental equipment including, but no limited to, sterilizers, washers, ultrasonic washers, and cart washers.
• Independently demonstrates the skills and competencies necessary to safely perform the assigned job, determined through on-going skills, competency assessments, and performance evaluations
• Proficiency in utilization of basic computer programs such as Microsoft Office and electronic instrument tracking system, if applicable.
• Utilizes all departmental equipment according to manufacturers’ instructions for use and departmental polices and protocols
• Demonstrates proper phone etiquette when responding to inquiries made to the department
• Completes departmental and institutional competencies within established required timelines.
• Maintains patient and family privacy