A Shipping Container-Based Sterile Processing Unit for Low Resources Settings

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dc.citation.articleNumbere0149624en_US
dc.citation.issueNumber3en_US
dc.citation.journalTitlePLoS ONEen_US
dc.citation.volumeNumber11en_US
dc.contributor.authorBoubour, Jeanen_US
dc.contributor.authorJenson, Katherineen_US
dc.contributor.authorRichter, Hannahen_US
dc.contributor.authorYarbrough, Josiahen_US
dc.contributor.authorOden, Z. Mariaen_US
dc.contributor.authorSchuler, Douglas A.en_US
dc.contributor.orgRice 360 Institute of Global Healthen_US
dc.date.accessioned2017-05-09T20:16:06Zen_US
dc.date.available2017-05-09T20:16:06Zen_US
dc.date.issued2016en_US
dc.description.abstractDeficiencies in the sterile processing of medical instruments contribute to poor outcomes for patients, such as surgical site infections, longer hospital stays, and deaths. In low resources settings, such as some rural and semi-rural areas and secondary and tertiary cities of developing countries, deficiencies in sterile processing are accentuated due to the lack of access to sterilization equipment, improperly maintained and malfunctioning equipment, lack of power to operate equipment, poor protocols, and inadequate quality control over inventory. Inspired by our sterile processing fieldwork at a district hospital in Sierra Leone in 2013, we built an autonomous, shipping-container-based sterile processing unit to address these deficiencies. The sterile processing unit, dubbed “the sterile box,” is a full suite capable of handling instruments from the moment they leave the operating room to the point they are sterile and ready to be reused for the next surgery. The sterile processing unit is self-sufficient in power and water and features an intake for contaminated instruments, decontamination, sterilization via non-electric steam sterilizers, and secure inventory storage. To validate efficacy, we ran tests of decontamination and sterilization performance. Results of 61 trials validate convincingly that our sterile processing unit achieves satisfactory outcomes for decontamination and sterilization and as such holds promise to support healthcare facilities in low resources settings.en_US
dc.identifier.citationBoubour, Jean, Jenson, Katherine, Richter, Hannah, et al.. "A Shipping Container-Based Sterile Processing Unit for Low Resources Settings." <i>PLoS ONE,</i> 11, no. 3 (2016) Public Library of Science: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0149624.en_US
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0149624en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1911/94212en_US
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisherPublic Library of Scienceen_US
dc.rightsThis is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.en_US
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/en_US
dc.titleA Shipping Container-Based Sterile Processing Unit for Low Resources Settingsen_US
dc.typeJournal articleen_US
dc.type.dcmiTexten_US
dc.type.publicationpublisher versionen_US
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