Is Your Facility Compliant in Its IUSS Usage?

Is your facility compliant in its IUSS usage?

A June update to the Ambulatory Surgical Center Infection Control Surveyor Worksheet (ICSW)
by the Centers for medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) addresses standards of practice and addresses
some FAQs regarding immediate-use steam sterilization (IUSS).

Among the updates, the ICSW makes clear that IUSS may not be used as a routine practice (p. 14).

If your facility is performing IUSS frequently or routinely, you may be out of compliance with these clinical standards.

Too few instrument sets? Too many procedures each day?

Insufficient inventory? Stressed staff? Slow instrument turn over?
Are you open to increased Joint Commission and Medicare Survey scrutiny?
Are you facing a higher risk of patient infection?

Does your facility use IUSS routinely to sterilize your most frequently used instrument sets?

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