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Paul G. Auwaerter, MD, MBA; Paul P. Doghramji, MD, FAAFP; Aruna Subramanian, MD

Cases and Conversations™: Applying Best Practices to Prevent Shingles in Your Practice

 operating room page provides news articles and videos on the intersection between surgery and infection prevention. The operating room is a prime breeding ground for harmful pathogens to spread, resulting in surgical site infections. The role of the infection preventionist, together with the perioperative nursing staff, is to craft policies and processes to cut down on these infections and ensure patient safety during surgical procedures. 

A meta-analysis found alcohol-based antiseptics significantly reduce Staphylococcus aureus-related surgical site infections (SSIs), demonstrating efficacy comparable to mupirocin and iodophor, supporting their expanded use in infection prevention strategies.


Alcohol-Based Antiseptics Show Promise for Nasal Decolonization and SSI Prevention

From advanced sterilization methods to combating antimicrobial resistance, Infection Control Today’s top articles of 2024 delivered actionable strategies for safer healthcare environments and improved patient outcomes.

Understanding NHSN's 2022 Rebaseline Data: Key Updates and Implications for HAI Reporting

Today's Infection Intel discusses updates from Johnson & Johnson MedTech, Merck and Ridgeback, MicroLumix, and Evinature. Read on to learn the latest.

Infection Intel: J&J MedTech, Merck and Ridgeback, MicroLumix, and Evinature Updates

Discover SHEA's visionary 10-year plan to reduce HAIs by advancing infection prevention strategies, understanding transmission, and improving diagnostic practices for better patient outcomes.

Tackling Health Care-Associated Infections: SHEA’s Bold 10-Year Research Plan to Save Lives

A new study finds nearly 80% of hospitals lack sufficient infection prevention staffing

Study Links Inadequate Infection Prevention Staffing to Higher Infection Rates

How many infection professionals should be employed at a health care facility? A study published in the 

 reveals a direct correlation between inadequate infection prevention and control (IPC) staffing levels and higher health care-associated infections (HAIs) rates. Conducted by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) Center for Research, Practice & Innovation, the study underscores the critical need for tailored staffing solutions to enhance patient safety.

executive director of APIC’s Center for Research, Practice, and Innovation, and lead author of the study.

 director of research for APIC’s Center for Research, Practice, and Innovation, and an 

 is the chief technology officer for APIC.

 spoke with Crapanzano-Sigafoos about the study.

The pilot project evaluated a novel online staffing calculator designed to provide customized recommendations for IP staffing levels. Findings showed that 79.2% of 390 acute care hospitals surveyed had insufficient staffing, correlating with significantly higher rates of HAIs such as central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs), catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs), 

 infections, and surgical site infections.

“The way the calculator works is it starts out with the IP-to-bed ratio, and if you look into the literature, all that's out there,” Crapanzano-Sigafoos said. “Either an IP-to-bed ratio or IP-to-hospital ratio. And we know it's not sufficient because if you have a hospital that's 150 beds and has no ICU and no emergency department, their needs are going to be different than a hospital that [has] 150 beds has both of those things and a burn unit. The infection prevention needs vary based on the services offered and the patient population. The calculator takes into consideration those factors, and so we start with the ratio, and then the number of beds in the ratio goes up and down based on those risk factors, things like, do you have an emergency department? Do you have an ICU? Do you have a burn unit, an inpatient rehab unit, et cetera? And so, based on the responses that the infection preventionist enters, then it gives a customized staffing ratio based on those needs.”

For instance, 25% of facilities with below-expected staffing levels reported elevated CAUTIs rates, compared to just 7% of adequately staffed hospitals. Historically, hospitals relied on outdated "one size fits all" benchmarks, such as 1 infection preventionist (IP) per 69 to 100 beds, which fail to account for modern health care complexities.

In response, APIC's predictive staffing calculator provides tailored recommendations based on hospital-specific factors, including emergency department presence, specialized units, and service complexity.

The study emphasizes that modern, data-driven staffing models are indispensable for infection control in today’s health care landscape.

A new study finds nearly 80% of hospitals lack sufficient infection prevention staffing, linking understaffing to increased health care-associated infections and highlighting a need for reform.

Jenny Hayes, MSN, RN, CIC, CAIP, CASSPT, the director of infection prevention at Jefferson Health East Region in New Jersey

's) Editorial Board members—a diverse group of professionals dedicated to advancing infection prevention and control practices. This series highlights each member's unique expertise and contributions to the field.

From groundbreaking research to innovative strategies, these experts are at the forefront of enhancing health care safety. Join us as we learn their insights, experiences, and visions for the future, providing valuable knowledge and inspiration to elevate infection control protocols. Meet Jenny Hayes, MSN, RN, CIC, CAIP, CASSPT, the director of infection prevention for Jefferson Health—East Region, in Stratford, New Jersey.

MSN, RN, CIC, CAIP, CASSPT, the director of infection prevention at Jefferson Health East Region in New Jersey, has built an impressive career dedicated to infection control. Her journey began early in nursing when she noticed critical gaps in basic hygiene practices. Starting as an LPN and eventually advancing to a master's degree, Hayes observed firsthand the severe consequences of infection in different healthcare settings, including dialysis and critical care, where patients faced high risks of bloodstream infections. Her experiences shaped her commitment to infection prevention and led her to specialize in this field.

“I always knew that I think I would like to be the infection control nurse because they would come to our orientations at hospitals, or come and, do you know, certain educational seminars, and I always highly valued everything they had to say, and thought that's what I would like to do someday,” Hayes said.

In 2005, Hayes officially entered the infection prevention field, working in large academic health care facilities and outpatient settings. Her roles have included overseeing infection control protocols across more than 200 facilities and collaborating on facility design and construction projects to ensure proper infection prevention measures, such as hand hygiene accessibility and airflow in surgery centers.

Today, at Jefferson Health, Hayes monitors emerging infectious threats like Candida auris, a highly resistant fungus increasingly common in health care. She emphasizes the importance of vigilant surveillance and isolation protocols, particularly for patients from high-risk environments like long-term care facilities. Another focus is the growing threat of antibiotic resistance, both in health care and agriculture, which she warns could lead to a return to pre-antibiotic days if unchecked.

Hayes also sees potential in artificial intelligence (AI) for infection prevention. She hopes AI can streamline infection surveillance, allowing infection preventionists to focus more on hands-on prevention measures. As infection control continues to evolve, Hayes calls for greater emphasis on antibiotic stewardship and AI's role in infection prevention.

“How's [AI] going to play out for the role of the infection preventionist?” Hayes said, “Hopefully, it's going to allow the opportunity to get the infection preventionist closer to the bedside, closer to the procedural areas, really being able to engage in the hand hygiene observations, [personal protective equipment] usage, all the things that we preach about, and maybe perhaps you do some audits on, but it's difficult to be there in the moment. So, it may change the role of how you carry out your infection preventionist activities.”

Meet the experts shaping infection prevention: Infection Control Today's Editorial Board members share insights, experiences, and cutting-edge strategies to enhance health care safety and quality. Meet Jenny Hayes, MSN, RN, CIC, CAIP, CASSPT. 


Meet Infection Control Today's Editorial Advisory Board Member: Jenny Hayes, MSN, RN, CIC, CAIP, CASSPT

Meet Shannon Simmons, DHSc, MPH, CIC. Infection Control Today's Editorial Advisory board member

Meet Shannon Simmons, DHSc, MPH, CIC.

From groundbreaking research to innovative strategies, these experts are at the forefront of enhancing health care safety. Join us as we learn their insights, experiences, and visions for the future, providing valuable knowledge and inspiration to elevate infection control protocols.

This installment is from Shannon Simmons, DHSc, MPH, CIC, System Program Manager of Ambulatory Infection Prevention for CHRISTUS Health, Irving TX.

My name is Shannon Simmons. I am the program manager of ambulatory infection prevention, and my journey as an infection preventionist began in the microbiology lab. I have always been fascinated by microorganisms and everything they can do in the unseen world of microorganisms. I spent some time as a microbiologist and wanted to expand my knowledge. Getting a master's degree in public health exposed me to different options, and infection prevention sparked my interest. It fused my love for public health and bringing everyone together, structures, standards, and policies. It's not that cool, but it's something that I have an interest in, and I am also bringing in the side of microbiology.

That is where I started, and I got an opportunity to join a very big team of infection preventionists at a large county hospital. So, I got the best experience coming into infection prevention by being a part of that large team because we had nurses and other people who had come from laboratory backgrounds. These people had come from working in health departments. It was a very well-rounded team. Having such a large hospital and seeing so many things, I got the best experience of everything possible. I wish every new infection preventionist could go into a large hospital with a large team and learn from many people how to make infection prevention work for everyone; infection prevention is everyone's responsibility.

Having those different perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences molded my career in infection prevention, the kind of things that I didn't think about because I don't have a nursing background; I was able to relate more to speaking with my colleagues and even the coming out of the bedside world, having a different, more epidemiological look at things, and understanding how the microorganism itself is even working to cause these issues that are happening that we physically see with people or in environments. This really brings everything together.

I had the opportunity to be a director of infection prevention during COVID-19. Making those decisions, understanding what's happening, and being that subject matter expert at a time when we were all learning on the fly, so [I have] had a very interesting infection prevention career. Now, taking on the role of focusing primarily on ambulatory care settings also leads me to be more creative with a lot of information because infection prevention has primarily been focused on hospital settings.

Now that much more health care is taking place outside of hospital settings, we realize what that looks like in our clinics and ambulatory surgery centers and how we can still provide the best care. Even though these patients aren't there, as long as they are in hospitals, for the most part, it's still a place where we should be practicing those infection prevention guidelines. Some things may need to be tweaked to meet the needs of those areas.

I like this role of working with smaller spaces that don't necessarily have an infection control practitioner but still need that assistance to ensure they are doing what is best for the patients and the staff. Trends that I am seeing are the emergence of what artificial intelligence (AI) can do in spaces, and it's so new and interesting that even I am trying to understand better options and how to translate those into our ambulatory settings.

 should cover in the next year], I have noticed nothing specific…[except AI] on the cusp of being a big phenomenon. But there's a lot of conversation about how we can use AI in health care in general. So, I'm very interested and excited to see what that looks like in the infection prevention world.

APIC is making a big push for this and will have a conference soon so we can all learn more and have better conversations. Infection prevention is a multidisciplinary part of health care, and just having that extra helps with AI. I'm very excited to see how that can help everyone.

Manufacturer instructions for use… is the hot topic everywhere. The more we talk about it, the closer we're getting to something that works for everyone. I'm very happy with the progress we're making in that area. It seems like such a simple and easy concept. The people who made it tell us how to use it, but there must be some universal language, everyone understanding everyone's role when it comes to not only using a product but also cleaning, sterilizing, and disinfecting it. I'm very interested to see more and hear more about how we can make instructions for use relatable, understandable, and universal in some way because it is such an important aspect of infection prevention.

Meet the experts shaping infection prevention: Infection Control Today's Editorial Board members share insights, experiences, and cutting-edge strategies to enhance health care safety and quality. Meet Shannon Simmons, DHSc, MPH, CIC.

Meet Shannon Simmons, DHSc, MPH, CIC, ICT's Editorial Advisory Member

Preventing overtreatement from C difficile with Rachel Guran, MPH

Cloistriodides difficile with Rachel Guran, MPH

 (AJIC) describes the outcome of a new approach to testing for 

 based on diagnostic stewardship principles. At Memorial Healthcare System in Hollywood, Florida, updated guidelines for ordering 

 tests led to a 20% reduction in inappropriate testing, ultimately helping to prevent patient overtreatment.

) spoke with Rachel Guran, MPH, BSN, RN, CIC, FAPIC, director of epidemiology and infection prevention at Memorial Healthcare System and an author of the study, “Impact of an electronic smart order-set for diagnostic stewardship of 

 infection (CDI) in a community healthcare system in South Florida.”

In this interview, Guran explains why the study was done, what the principles of diagnostic stewardship are, and how they were applied in this study to revise 

“Diagnostic stewardship is definitely a journey that many health care systems have been on for a while just like our partners in pharmacy and antimicrobial stewardship, we focus on with lab to partner to make sure that patients have the right test for the right reasons at the right time, for the right outcomes,” Guran said. “There are many benefits to diagnostic stewardship from the tests are able to better perform if they're used for what they're indicated for. So better results, more accurate results, cost savings, better for the patient that we're not doing unnecessary tests on them. This was a multidisciplinary effort to try to increase our diagnostic stewardship efforts at Memorial.”

asked what insights Guran and her fellow investigators learned from investigating this trend and how future guidelines might address this issue. “By focusing the study on patients who were symptomatic, as that was the appropriate indication for 

ficile. So we did find those patients once that algorithm was it, the education from the algorithm was in place, and then that electronic order stopped the inappropriate ordering. Patients who did not have signs and symptoms [or] patients who [recently] had laxatives. That is what we saw a decrease in, and that's exactly the goal we were going for…our NHSN rates have been amazing, and we saw a huge decrease in the amount of reportable 

Check out the rest of the interview to find out how to use this study to improve your facility’s unnecessary treatment of C difficile.

A Memorial Healthcare study shows updated C difficile testing guidelines led to a 20% reduction in inappropriate tests, improving diagnostic accuracy and preventing unnecessary treatments.

Reducing Inappropriate C difficile Testing: A Diagnostic Stewardship Success Story

’s) wide-ranging coverage of the infection prevention and control world. Everything from interviews with known opinion leaders to the news that infection preventionists and other health care professionals can use on their jobs.

Dear Helpdesk: Uplifting Team Morale During Financial Uncertainty and Layoff Threats

Maintaining team morale during financial instability and potential layoffs requires clear communication, emotional support, and professional development opportunities to reassure and retain valuable team members.

USDA Proposes New Regulations to Reduce Salmonella in Poultry

The USDA aims to enhance food safety and public health while maintaining cost-effectiveness and ensuring safer poultry products by implementing targeted monitoring and a phased compliance approach.

NIH Study: Routine Lab Tests Ineffective for Diagnosing Long COV

A recent National Institutes of Health study reveals that routine lab tests are ineffective for diagnosing long COVID, highlighting the urgent need for novel biomarkers to identify and treat the condition accurately.

WHO Declares Mpox Surge in DRC a Global Health Emergency, Calls for Urgent International Action; APIC Responds

WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros declared the outbreak of monkeypox in DRC and other African countries a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. APIC provides a tool for infection preventionists and epidemiologists.

Meet Infection Control Today's Editorial Board Member: Henry Spratt, Jr, PhD

Meet the experts shaping infection prevention: Infection Control Today's Editorial Board members share insights, experiences, and cutting-edge strategies to enhance health care safety and quality. Meet Henry Spratt, Jr, PhD.

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today®’s highlights for the week ending August 17, 2024.

Weekly Rounds: With Mpox Surging,  WHO and APIC Respond, and More

Infection Preventionists Advocate for Improved Medical Device Instructions for Use (IFUs)

Recently, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) published the 

Modernizing Medical Device Instructions for Use(IFUs): Infection Preventionists Speak Up for Patient Safety

,” which illuminates the complexities, inefficiencies, and frustrations associated with IFUs. IPs have expressed concerns about the need for more clarity, outdated information, brand-specific instructions, and contradictions between device specifications and IFUs. These challenges consume valuable time and pose risks to patient safety.

, MLS, BS, CIC, FAPIC, vice chair of APIC's Public Policy Committee, to learn more about IPs' challenges with IFUs, 

Marie H. Wilson, MSN, RN, CIC, FAPIC, is an infection Preventionist in the Quality Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, Washington, and the 2024 APIC Communications Committee chair.

Heather Ridge, BS, BSN, RN, CCHW, CIC, system infection prevention outpatient manager for Novant Health, Inc, in North Carolina. She is also the 2024 vice chair of the APIC Communications Committee.

Michelle W. King, MT(ASCP), MPH, CIC, is the corporate director of infection prevention and control for the Department of Epidemiology at the McLeod Health System in Florence, South Carolina, and a member of the APIC Communications Committee.

Each IP gave examples of stories of challenging issues they have had with IFUs.

“For me, this white paper is the culmination of many years of IPs' experience being a middle person between manufacturers and regulators in terms of the appropriate use of devices in the healthcare setting, and important to us is their cleaning and disinfection,” Wilson said. “So, there have been a number of issues that have been identified in the white paper that are going to resonate with infection preventionists that read it through our experiences in health care, even maybe before we were IPs in health care, and so I appreciate APIC taking this step to recognize that we are just messengers in this process. And we need some support from the manufacturers and regulators for real, sustainable change to improve the health care safety environment.”

King agreed, “One of the most important parts of the white paper was their recommendations. That standardized format for IFUs and making the IFUs last for the lifespan of the product indicate when the IFP was last updated because that's important as well. One of my pet peeves was making sure that you're not too vendor-specific on the products that are recommended for cleaning.”

All 3 IPs agreed that APIC’s paper on IFUs was comprehensive and well laid out. Ridge said, “The action plan is just perfectly in line [with] where we need to go, especially as an organization for infection prevention…. The only thing I would like to hear a little bit more focus on is that we have this great partnership with our vendors, and we are very active with our sponsors and our national committee. However, we push that relationship that the vendors need to have and know about infection prevention because sometimes it goes beyond just a sellable product. It's what's feasible for the end user to do. They're not always in the same, again, same understanding as we do. So, to make sure that vendors understand what's out there, what's normal, how do we partner together, and we're going to ask questions, and it's going to take a while to have that collaboration in place.”

IPs discuss APIC's white paper, which highlights IPs frustrations with outdated and unclear medical device IFUs and the challenges they face.

Video on health care training and techniques to remember it. 

Making Patient Safety Stick: AORN 2024

Ensuring patient safety is just as essential as maintaining staff safety in health care. However, health care instructors often struggle with how to make their lessons memorable and impactful. During the AORN International Surgical Conference & Expo in 2024, Michael Sinnott, MBBS, FACEM, FRACP, gave an interesting presentation on this topic.

) spoke with Michael Sinnott, MBBS, FACEM, FRACP, cofounder, academic associate professor at The School of Medicine, University of Queensland; and adjunct associate professor of the Science and Engineering Faculty, Queensland University of Technology, at the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses’s (AORN’s) International Surgical Conference & Expo 2024.

Sinnott spoke on his presentation, “Stop the Snooze: Improve Technologies and Techniques for Making Safety Education Stick.”

As the title suggests, Sinnott explained key theories of adult education used to make education more interesting and engaging, ensure that the key messages stick longer, and are put into practice.

“We're doing it almost as a live workshop,” Sinnott told 

. “So, the four stages for designing and delivering an education session are, first of all, creating buy-in. Secondly, integrating interactivity. Third, encouraging collaboration. And lastly, including a competition. Our session will go through each of those 4 stages in the background while we present the information and carry out a [what is] really a short workshop where we will divide the audience into 4 [parts] and ask each of the 4 sections of the audience to come up with at least one way in which they're ascribed stage can be applied.”

Sinnott and his team hope that “the audience will take away some new knowledge and a new structure for designing their own education session. So, we believe that, during the talk, with this structure, they will be able to put their own uniqueness and individuality into creating those 4 different steps.”

 asked why Sinnott, who is from Australia, would come clear to Nashville to speak.

“There are 2 reasons. First of all, AORN is probably the largest and most influential professional group for perioperative nurses in the world. …[The] second main reason I'm here [is] that is because my colleagues [and I] all believe that we can't develop a good culture for patient safety if we don't have a good culture for staff safety. And we've been trying to put that message out there for probably 10 or 15 years. But it became much more obvious during the COVID-19 pandemic, where we saw that staff members who were sick, some even died.”

’s senior editor attended the session, and the audience's reaction was overwhelmingly positive. After discussion and collaboration on how to improve their assigned topic, a speaker from each section went to the microphone and told the rest of the session what their group had decided.

“Excellent idea!” one audience member said aloud in response to one of the suggestions. Then, in a simple yet positive move to remind the attendees of Sinnott’s presentation, his assistants gave out chocolate candies as they left the room. 

The conference ran from Saturday, March 9, to Tuesday, March 12, 2024. For all ICT’s coverage, 

During AORN's 2024 conference, Michael Sinnott, MBBS, FACEM, FRACP, shared insights on enhancing safety education's impact. Learn how to engage audiences and ensure lasting lessons in health care instruction.


Making Patient Safety Stick: Innovative Techniques From AORN 2024

Ensuring patient safety is just as essential as maintaining staff safety in healthcare. However, healthcare instructors often struggle with how to make their lessons memorable and impactful. 

"Stop the Snooze" AORN 2024 presentation on patient safety

Ensuring patient safety is just as essential as maintaining staff safety in healthcare. However, healthcare instructors often struggle with how to make their lessons memorable and impactful. During the AORN International Surgical Conference & Expo in 2024, Michael Sinnott, MBBS, FACEM, FRACP, gave an interesting presentation on this topic.

®) spoke with Michael Sinnott, MBBS, FACEM, FRACP, cofounder, academic associate professor of The School of Medicine, University of Queensland; and adjunct associate professor of the Science and Engineering Faculty, Queensland University of Technology at the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses’s (AORN’s) International Surgical Conference & Expo 2024.

Sinnott spoke on his presentation, “Stop the Snooze: Improve Technologies and Techniques for Making Safety Education Stick.” As the title suggests, Sinnott explained key theories of adult education used to make education more interesting and engaging, ensure that the key messages stick longer, and are put into practice.

“Excellent idea!” one audience member said aloud in answer to one of the suggestions. Then, in a simple yet positive move for the attendees to remove Sinnott’s presentation, his assistants gave out chocolate candies as attendees left the room. 

 asked why Sinnott, who is from Australia, would come clear to Nashville to speak. 

“There are 2 reasons," Sinnott said. "First of all, AORN is probably the largest and most influential professional group for perioperative nurses in the world. …[The] second main reason I'm here [is] that is because my colleagues [and I] all believe that we can't develop a good culture for patient safety if we don't have a good culture for staff safety. And we've been trying to put that message out there for probably 10 or 15 years. But it became much more obvious during the COVID-19 pandemic, where we saw that staff members who were sick, some even died.”

The conference ran from Saturday, March 9, to Tuesday, March 12, 2024. For all 

Patient safety is as important as staff safety. Yet, how do health care instructors get others to remember their lessons? One presentation, given by Michael Sinnott, MBBS, FACEM, FRACP, at the AORN International Surgical Conference & Expo 2024, had a unique suggestion. 

"Stop the Snooze": A Presentation on Making Safety Education Stick 

perioperative nurses AORN2024 sterile processing department

Playing a game for perioperative nurses to learn about the sterile processing department

Perioperative nurses and other personnel in the operating room must work with the sterile processing department (SPD) to get the instruments required for the surgeries. However, do those personnel know what happens in the SPD? Do they understand the intricacies and the requirements that go into a successful SPD?

talks with John Kimsey, Steris's vice president of processing optimization and customer success, about his presentation and game at the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) International Conference and Expo held from March 9 to 12, 2024, in Nashville, Tennessee.

The OR and SPD work together, but does the OR personnel know what the SPD does? In this exclusive interview, learn how this SPD simulation game came about, the key takeaways, and the 2 different forms of the game.

The conference runs from Saturday, March 9, to Tuesday, March 12, 2024. For all 

“It’s a hands-on audience participation SPD Simulation game that is super

fun and engaging that teaches people a lot about sterile processing. I’ll be running the game twice on Monday and twice on Tuesday.”

 asked Kimsey were to provide an overview of his presentation, the key points or findings that will be discussed, what inspired the presentation, and what he hopes attendees will take away from your presentation.

Lastly, what is he most looking forward to at the AORN conference this year?

Kimsey told ICT that his presentation is “more than just a presentation. AORN is trying to develop some skill studios that they call “Skills to Use Hands-on Learning” out in the Expo Hall.”

He said that Steris decided they would do a hands-on simulation of sterile processing in the Expo Hall. “This is a pretty big thing. It's 40 feet by 60 feet. It's a full-size replication of a sterile processing department. And we're going to have audience participation.”

Kimsey said that attendees participate in this game because it is fun. “it's learning about SPD, many aspects of SPD, from pretending to run an SPD and actually doing it. We have some push carts, [and] in the pushcarts [are] our instrument trays, a shoebox. And we use crayons for the instruments. We have an actual full-size SPD setup with tables that represent sinks, washers, assembly tables, sterilizers, card washers, and storage racks, and we have 200 shoe boxes or instrument trays. It's about 22 minutes long and is the actual simulation of an app to see if they can process all 200 trays in 22 minutes. And, of course, it's sped up, right? So, it's instant, taking 15 minutes to assemble a tray in real life. They'll have 30 seconds to assemble this. So it's like a 30 to 1 ratio time.”

It is educational for the participants and the audience because “there are a lot of things that [they learn] by playing the game; it's fun because you get to see people struggle with all these shoe boxes and crayons. After 22 minutes, we will talk about what we have learned.”

(Quotes have been edited for clarity. To hear the entire interview, watch above.)

Do operating room personnel understand the complexities of the sterile processing department? They rely on the sterile processing department for surgical instruments, but are they aware of its complexities and requirements?

Operating Room

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