Podiatists sterilisation, cleanliness and autoclaves

Every instrument is autoclaved between uses.

Podiatists, sterilisation, cleanliness and autoclaves.

At Walk Without Pain Podiatry Clinics, your health and wellbeing is our priority. We are proud to meet, or exceed, the relevant Australian health care standards for clinic operations as well sterilisation of all reusable items. Each of our clinics is equipped with an on-site autoclave with all of our instrument cleaning completed by our trained staff.

The relevant health standards in Queensland skin disinfectants (antiseptics) are: (AS/NZS) 4815:2006 Office-based health care facilities – Reprocessing of reusable medical and surgical instruments and (AS/NZS) 4187:2014 Reprocessing of reusable medical devices in health service organisations.

These documents can be found on the Qld Health website and provides guidance for the following:

• handwashing
• aseptic technique
• operating field
• handling and disposal of sharps
• personal protective equipment for staff and patients
• management of waste
• cleaning and sterilisation of reusable items

Our in-house policy and procedures manuals have been developed and refined to extensively cover the following areas.  The document covers 17 pages and is compliant with Australian standards for accreditation of medical practices:

Contents

Sterilisation and Infection Control Policy. 2

1. Introduction. 2
2. Governance and systems for infection prevention, control and surveillance. 2
3. Infection prevention and control process 2

Infection Control Procedure. 3

1. Staff immunisation. 3
2. Standard Precautions 3
3. Hand Washing Technique. 4
4. Handling Used Items 5
5. Cleaning of Re-usable Instruments 5
6. General Cleaning. 5
7. Cleaning Routines 6
8. Drying Instruments 7
9. Packaging / Wrapping Instruments 7
10. Tracking of Critical Instruments 7
11. Blood / Body Fluid Spills 7
12. Waste Disposal 8
13. Needle stick / Sharps Injury. 8
14. Sharps 8
15. Antimicrobial Stewardship. 8

Sterilisation Procedure. 10

1. Load the Steriliser 10
2. Loading Wrapped Items 10
3. Loading Unwrapped Items 10
4. Operating the Steriliser 10
5. Unloading the Steriliser 10
6. Validation of the Sterilisation Process 11
7. Annual Validation Procedure. 11
8. Annual Biological Indicators (Spore) Test 12
9. Calibration of the Steriliser 12
10. Daily Monitoring of the Sterilisation Process 13
11. Recording. 13
12. Instrument Storage. 13
13. Chemical storage. 14
14. Transporting Sterile and Unsterile Items 14

This page is about the keywords:  Podiatrist sterilisation cleanliness autoclave.  It is intended to supply information to consumers about the ways in which podiatrists protect clients with sterilisation using autoclaves to remove infective agents.