Responsibilities

Under the general supervision, the Sterile Processing Technician is responsible for collecting, processing, storing and delivering medical/surgical supplies and equipment. The Sterile Processing Technician is responsible for the reprocessing of all sterile and non-sterile materials, instruments and equipment for surgery and other hospital units. The Sterile Processing Technician is responsible for manual cleaning and decontamination, operating the mechanical washers and sonic units, testing autoclaves for efficiency and maintaining compliant records. They assist in the recall process as needed.

Essential Functions:

• Practices aseptic techniques and universal precaution to ensure the safety of the patient and employees. Understands the correct use of chemical solutions and detergents in the decontamination and sterilization processes through reading MSDS and in-service education to guarantee personal and patient safety.
• Understands the operation, care and malfunction signals of the ultrasonic cleaner, the washer/disinfectors, the steam autoclaves, the AER, the EO sterilizers and aerators, and the plasma sterilizer in order to carry out their intended functions.
• Cleans, inspects, sets up and tests patient care equipment according to departmental procedures to provide safe and functional equipment for patient use.
• Recognizes a variety of surgical instruments, endoscopes and devices and knows the proper sterilization and packaging procedures to provide usable sterile equipment for the operating room and nursing floors.
• Understands the principles of shelf life, expiration dates, dating loads and quality control as they relate to in-house sterilization to provide sterile reusable equipment to the hospital.
• Stores, rotates and checks expiration dates on all sterile supplies to prevent the use of outdated supplies.
• Checks and resupplies assigned patient care areas and exchange carts according to par levels.

Schedule: Monday–Friday, 2:30pm–11:00pm