Sterilization of medical instruments before re-use is essential to prevent contamination. And in medical institutions like hospitals and clinics, medical tools are often exposed to germs and bacteria, while medical wastes contain biological contaminants that need to be deactivated through autoclaving before disposal.
So what happens if you don’t autoclave your medium? Read further to find out more.
The Dangers Of NOT Autoclaving Medical Loads
Medical facilities require tools and equipment before next use because failing to do so can lead to severe complications. So here are some things that will happen if you fail to autoclave medical loads:
- Increases The Risk Of Contamination– Bacteria, microorganisms, and residues left on the medical tools can transfer from another patient, which increases the risk of contamination, especially if it’s previously used on a patient with a highly contagious disease. Depending on the contaminants left on the instruments, the next patient and even the doctors will be at risk of contracting serious diseases like Hepatitis, AIDS, and HIV.
And even if the medical implements are not contaminated with disease-causing bacteria or viruses, the germs left on these tools will be enough to cause infection which can make the person sick if they are exposed to these microorganisms.
So it’s important that these instruments should be autoclaved to ensure they are sterilized before the next use.
- Contamination Can Affect The Entire Medical Facility – Infection can spread quickly in a hospital since most of the people inside the building have weak immune systems. And as a result, it develops into a large-scale issue which could have been easily prevented in the first place.
It doesn’t matter if it’s just one contaminated instrument, for it still has to undergo sterilization process inside the autoclave chamber to prevent the spread of infection which can also impact the medical establishment in a negative way.
- At Risk Of Being Exposed To Long-Term Illnesses– Non-sterile medical instruments and equipment can also lead to exposure to long-term illnesses. To be specific, patients may contract long-term serious illnesses due to contamination. And the worst part is these conditions can be lethal if not attended with long-term care.
This can also cause a big problem to the hospital since they will be held liable for the damages caused due to contamination. Also, it reflects a negative image to the medical institution because they will be labeled as irresponsible because of failing to autoclave medical implements. Moreover, they will also face lawsuits from infected patients who acquired their services in the hopes of getting well.
Tips To Ensure Medical Mediums Are Properly Sterilized
Lastly, autoclaving medical instruments may be mandatory, but you also need to make sure the autoclave machine is working properly for successful sterilization. So here are the things you need to do to ensure medical mediums are properly sterilized:
- Don’t overload the autoclave machine or position the loads on either the front end or back endas this won’t sterilize the instruments properly as there is not enough room for the steam to penetrate the tools.
- Make sure the autoclave setting is configured to the type of load to be sterilized.
- Don’t forget to label the items using an autoclave indicator tapeto ensure validation and to prevent decontamination which will require these instruments to undergo the process cycle again. Check out Nev’s Ink todayif you’re looking for a place to buy quality autoclave tapes online.
