Select region
Submit

Accuracy in your surgical instrument tracking for enhanced patient safety

Topic
Operating Room
Sterile reprocessing
Digital Health
Sterile assistent scanning surgical instrument with T-DOC sterile supply management solution
Topic
Operating Room
Sterile reprocessing
Digital Health

T-DOC knows the key to total surgical instrument traceability

When it comes to sterile supply management, there is no room for error. You need to control every detail in your sterile supply workflow, so the surgical teams can focus on what’s most important – the patients.

Every time an instrument or tray is packed in the sterile department for a new surgery, our sterile supply management solution, T-DOC, assigns it with a new, unique production identifier, called a unit number. The unit numbers enable T-DOC to ensure complete traceability throughout the production cycle.

T-DOC is a smart solution that optimizes sterile reprocessing by tracking supplies as they travel through decontamination, packing, sterilization, storage, dispatch and use on a patient. 

Surgical instrument tracking with the highest level of quality

Each phase of the production cycle – from processing to surgery and use on a patient – is linked and recorded on a unique unit number. Because the complete list of unit numbers assigned to a specific instrument accumulates throughout an instrument’s life cycle, it allows you to view its entire processing history – going beyond serial numbers to ensure complete traceability. The accuracy of your records enforces patient safety and enables quick location of patients in case of a recall.

If only tracking by the serial number, there is no unique identifier for each process and use on a patient. The more often a tray is used, the more patients, surgeries and processes are connected to that serialized instrument, and the more complex and time-consuming revision of the traceability records. As tracking only by serial number is less accurate, the uncertainty of the instrument history will increase with the instrument's life cycle. 

Unit numbers further improve quality by preventing the same tray from appearing at different locations at the same time – a problem you can encounter if only tracking by serial number.

Sterile supply management enhancing patient safety

Has an adverse event occurred, putting patient safety at risk? With unit numbers, affected patients can quickly be identified. Unit numbers add an extra layer of quality to the sterile production as the unit barcode must be scanned and verified in every area within the CSSD before moving onto the next.

Did an error occur in the sterilizer process? Then T-DOC will not allow the unit to be dispatched to a customer. If there is an attempt to skip steps, staff will be prompted with notifications. Unit numbers play a key role in minimizing human error and enhancing patient safety. 

T-DOC is invaluable as a safety net because it eliminates risk and gives CSSD staff the assurance that they will not miss any crucial step in the decontamination process

Control your sterile reprocessing with total instrument traceability

T-DOC gives you precise control over your sterile reprocessing, guaranteeing total traceability through unique unit numbers that record the whole processing history of an instrument or set.

It’s a flexible, automated and easy-to-use solution that enables you to control every detail in your sterile supply workflow, so the surgical teams can focus on what’s most important – the patients.

Related Articles