When you are expecting to have a surgery, the Central Sterile Processing Department and its dozens of staffers are preparing behind the scenes all the tools that are needed by your surgeons and for you too! Preparations even start the night before at the UConn Health Surgery Center as well as the UConn John Dempsey Hospital’s OR.

In fact, Central Sterile is “central” to the operating room and a procedure’s safety and success. All medical and surgical supplies, both sterile and nonsterile, are cleaned, prepared, processed, stored, and issued for patient care by this Department.

The Department is home to three huge washers, four sterilizers, and hundreds of instruments that need to be processed daily for approximately twenty-five operations occurring each day.

All surgical instruments and tools are washed after each surgery to be decontaminated by hand, washed in the washer disinfectors, hand assembled, wrapped, and labeled by staffers before finally being placed in the sterilizers.

The Department services not only the operating rooms needs, but also urgent care centers around the State of Connecticut, UConn Health’s vast outpatient care facilities, and even the UConn dental school’s clinics.

A new digital system called T Doc has recently launched to replace the long standing, traditional paper tracking process for surgical instruments. It is further enhancing UConn Health’s regulatory compliance and tracking of instruments. Instruments can now be scanned to identify when they have been sterilized, what sterilization parameters were used and where the item should be stored after sterilization.

“Central Sterile is one of the most highly regulated areas of a health system,” stresses Ellen Benson, RN associate director of Procedural Services and manager of the Sterile Processing Department at UConn Health. All instruments are tracked to ensure sterility, the rooms are monitored to ensure that they maintain the correct temperature and humidity for storing instruments and even the water supply is closely monitored.

“It’s all about patient safety,” says Benson. “Patient safety all starts with Central Sterile ensuring that instruments are cleaned and sterilized properly; the first step in helping to prevent surgical site infections. It takes a village. No surgery can be performed without the instruments.  Without the Central Sterile team, we just can’t do surgery.”

The instrument techs know the ins and outs about all the instruments used across the surgical specialties, and are constantly learning about new tools and their individual required cleaning and sterilization processes.

“I always see the instrument techs reaching out to each other for advice, sharing knowledge, and helping each other. It’s true teamwork!” says Benson. “They work so hard!”

Benson has been in health care for 42 years and has spent the last 35 years at UConn Health inside the operating rooms.

“It’s a huge team effort across the board in the OR. There are a lot of people supporting our patients behind the scenes for their journey in the operating room.  Our volume has increased significantly over the years. We have never been busier than we are today.”

She adds, “It takes many people to get a patient through surgery. We have doctors, nurses, surgical techs and other support staff all working together for the patients.”

From X-ray, the blood bank, to the labs – the team is very tightly woven with everyone across the hospital.

Additionally, there is always the unexpected for the Central Sterile team to handle.

“We get a lot of patients from the ED who may need surgery urgently, patients experiencing a stroke, appendicitis, or a herniated disc. They come straight to us, we get ready quickly and we take good care of them!” says Benson.

Benson and her team know that when patients come to the hospital for care, it can be one of the most vulnerable times in their life. Some surgeries are elective, and they are able to “cure” their problem and send them home, others are diagnosed with illness that require additional care.

“We are here to support our patients and their families, who are waiting, hoping, and worrying. Spending a few minutes with family members goes a long way to make them feel more at ease. It’s amazing what 5 minutes of your time, and offering a piece of candy or a drink of water can do for a family member to make them feel comforted,” says Benson.

Minnie Torres of Harwinton has worked for UConn Health for 16 years. She worked her way up from an instrument tech in the Department to now supervisor of Central Sterile the last four years.

“It’s very rewarding to work in Central Sterile. I’m very proud of the work we do. Also, the people I work with at UConn Health make it worth while too. We cheer each other on,” says Torres.

“Everyone in Central Sterile comes together as a fast-paced team each day and jumps in to help and get everything washed, sterilized, and processed. Our work is tedious but exciting. At the end of the day our jobs are very fulfilling as we are making a true difference in the lives of others.”

Torres adds, “When people hear you work at UConn, they are wowed. They know we work hard, and we hit the ground running every day.”

Ryley Finn of Farmington has served as an instrument tech in the Department for the last two years.

“I wanted to learn, so I came to work here at UConn Health,” says Finn. “I really like it here and I like my colleagues. I am always learning new things.”

Finn loves the opportunity she and her colleagues at UConn Health have to watch surgeries and the instruments used in action to get a full picture of the OR process and to better understand how each instrument they prepare for use works.

“To see how the tools work in action is really cool and how we play a critical role to help patients during surgery,” says Finn.

To keep up with the growing patient volumes and demands for UConn Health clinical and surgical services soon Central Sterile will be moving toward a 24/7 operation. UConn Health is renovating the older Connecticut Tower space of the department and the team is looking forward into moving back into that space.

“I am so proud of the Central Sterile team,” says Benson. “We have the best team.”

“That’s Mom,” Torres and Finn heartwarmingly refer to Benson as.

“My colleagues are my family too. We will always be there to support each other,” says Benson.

Thank you Central Sterile for all you do!

This content is part of a collaborative initiative of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, with UConn Health’s Chief Diversity Officer Dr. Jeffrey Hines, to celebrate the institution’s shared values and its workforce. Send your word-of-the-month nominations to thehub@uchc.edu