Sterilization Procedures:
Dr. Farley, Dr. Russell, and their staff take great pride in the thorough manner in which they approach infection control in their office. Disposable items are used whenever possible, and every reusable instrument goes through a series of steps to ensure that it is sterilized and safe for reuse.
These steps include:
Scrubbing the dirty instrument to remove any visible debris
Vibration in an ultrasonic cleaner filled with a disinfectant
Placement in a pouch with a chemical indicator that changes color when it has been exposed to the level of heat required for the autoclave to function successfully
The sealed pouches are then run through a full cycle in one of our two autoclaves
We monitor the effectiveness of both our autoclaves every week with a spore test.
We utilize a commercial monitoring service from which we purchase a card with frozen spores on the surface.
The cards are removed from the freezer and allowed to begin growing spores for several days prior to being run through a cycle of each autoclave.
At the end of the cycle, the autoclaved card is overnighted to the monitoring service which tests the cards to verify that all spores have been killed.
We receive documentation from this service to assure us that our equipment is functioning properly, ensuring our patients’ safety.
