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

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dc.citation.articleNumbere0149624
dc.citation.issueNumber3
dc.citation.journalTitlePLoS ONE
dc.citation.volumeNumber11
dc.contributor.authorBoubour, Jean
dc.contributor.authorJenson, Katherine
dc.contributor.authorRichter, Hannah
dc.contributor.authorYarbrough, Josiah
dc.contributor.authorOden, Z. Maria
dc.contributor.authorSchuler, Douglas A.
dc.contributor.orgRice 360 Institute of Global Health
dc.date.accessioned2017-05-09T20:16:06Z
dc.date.available2017-05-09T20:16:06Z
dc.date.issued2016
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.
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.
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0149624
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1911/94212
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisherPublic Library of Science
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.
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.titleA Shipping Container-Based Sterile Processing Unit for Low Resources Settings
dc.typeJournal article
dc.type.dcmiText
dc.type.publicationpublisher version
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