Building Beyond the Walls: How UF Health Designed an Offsite SPD for Long-Term Success

At the upcoming 2025 Healthcare Sterile Processing Association (HSPA) Annual Conference, Sarah Vinson, MBA, CRCST, director of sterile processing at UF Health in Gainesville, Florida, will co-present a session titled “What It Takes to Build a Successful Offsite Reprocessing Center.” Alongside Brian Reid from UNC Health, Vinson will share the practical and strategic lessons learned from establishing an off-site sterile processing center to meet the needs of a rapidly growing health system. The HSPA Annual Conference will be held in Louisville, Kentucky, from April 27 to 29, 2025.

The presentation will offer attendees a roadmap for planning and implementing a reprocessing center beyond hospital walls—something increasingly relevant as health systems outgrow their existing footprints. Vinson emphasizes that while facility design is critical, success also depends on prework, including data cleansing, inventory management, staff planning, and workflow optimization. The session will explore misconceptions around off-site centers, such as the belief they automatically reduce costs or staffing needs, when, in fact, the reality varies based on system structure and scale.

“The concept and development of transitioning to centralized, off-site reprocessing centers has been the industry trend for large academic facilities for the last decade or so,” Vinson said. “Vanderbilt's probably one of the originals to have ever done it, and people learn from them. But since then, several other institutions have transitioned here. So really, what we want to do with our journey and story about why we wanted to build an off-site [and] our lessons learned, things to consider if you're thinking about an off-site, because we've had several people visit us since we've built our facility. The interest is there, and we have a good story to share based on our first year and a half of being open.”

Vinson’s insights also extend beyond those actively planning an off-site facility. Attendees will gain tools and strategies for internal remodels or workflow redesigns. She hopes to provide value whether an organization is preparing for expansion or simply trying to improve current operations.

The presentation also addresses broader industry challenges, including staffing shortages, technological gaps, and the growing complexity of surgical instrumentation. By building a center that supports current operations and long-term growth, Vinson and her team aim to provide the resources that sterile processing professionals need to perform their jobs thoroughly and safely.

Returning to Louisville, where she attended her first HSPA conference in 2011, feels like a homecoming for Vinson. With over 2 decades in the field, she looks forward to reconnecting with peers, sharing solutions, and continuing to learn. Her message to attendees: bring an open mind, and expect to leave with actionable insights.

Vinson offers her advice about attending conferences: “I think coming to conferences, whether it's HSPA, APIC, or AORN, it's always good to have an open mind I think that you don't have all the answers or know everything, and so coming to these conferences can be good and eye opening to learn new things, new skills, even if it's going to the expo and seeing new technology you didn't even know existed. So, coming with an open mind and learning as much as you can at these conferences will benefit you, rather than coming and thinking you already have all the answers. Because I definitely do not. So, I'm excited to learn.”