Rahul Patil, Director of Marketing, Surgical Workflows, Getinge Medical India P L states that the CSSD market in India is rapidly expanding and the main factors contributing are the increased number of surgeries and the rise in hospital acquired infections. He believes Getinge has a great role to play in addressing the needs of infection control market in light of the recent Covid outbreak that raised concerns about safety and sterile reprocessing. In this exclusive interview he shares his insights on CSSD quality and importance of skilled cssd manpower.
"Being a flag bearer of the infection control industry, company is investing heavily into technological enhancement of all our products through continued R&D efforts
“
Rahul Patil, Director Marketing, Surgical Workflow, Getinge Medical India
Q: Getinge is a global leader in the development of sterile processing solutions for healthcare. Tell us about Getinge’s s journey, in India so far?
We have been in India for over 5 decades through distributor channels of Getinge. As a result of our direct operations in India since 2005, Getinge products have always been of the highest quality and performance. Throughout history, Getinge has maintained a leading position in the market due to a solid marketing strategy. As a company, Getinge has always emphasized knowledge sharing, the latest trends in the Sterile Processing Department, as well as offering good after-sales service.
With our consultative sales approach, expertise, and vast product portfolio, we are being pursued as a solution provider.
Q: What are the CSSD challenges and opportunities that you are witnessing in the Indian healthcare industry? According to you, what changes will drive improvement in CSSD practices in India?
Especially in metro areas, the central sterile processing department is in a much better position today, and CSSD is no longer neglected. The hospital planning process used to only consider a simple autoclave room in the earlier days. Most modern healthcare facilities in India now follow the three-zone concept, which we first introduced. Despite this, there is still a great deal of room for improvement in terms of infrastructure planning, investing in high-quality equipment, particularly in disinfection, investing in high-quality utilities, and last but not least, developing the skill sets of CSSD personnel.
In addition to continuing education, interaction, and knowledge sharing, the adoption of digital solutions, such as T-DOC, will help local staff meet the demands of surgical departments.
Q: Comment on the need and importance of CSSD solutions to improve patient safety and control HAI
In the hospital, the Sterile Processing Department is responsible for reprocessing contaminated surgical sets. As soon as these sets are received, they are inspected, cleaned, disinfected, packed, sterilized, and stored in a sterile environment until they are ready for surgery. The entire process is handled by skilled professionals that help hospitals reduce nosocomial infections, improve inventory management of sterile sets, improve the life of costly surgical sets which helps in improving ROI, and reduce surgery cancellations which helps in maximizing revenue.
Well-functioned SPD/CSSD setup ensures patient safety, lesser HAI and shorter patient stay in the hospital.
Q: What are the key factors to be considered while planning an efficient CSSD unit in a hospital?
There are several CSSD guidelines available today, which elaborate on modern workflows. Here are a few important key parameters to mention;
Location of the CSSD – CSSD should be on the same floor of the OT complex with clean and dirty corridors properly separated. CSSD location could also be elsewhere and connected by dedicated dumb waiters.
CSSD Area – For material movement and internal workflows, sufficient space should be allocated based on hospital bed capacity, surgeries planned per day, and surgical specialities. In addition to clear delineation and barriers, there should be colour coding and pressure differential norms for each area.
Equipment Planning – It is one of the very important and critical areas which needs a few considerations such as selection of right capacities of machines, purchasing important accessories, especially for washers, doing life cycle cost analysis on media consumption and maintenance cost, and proper service back up and upgradability. It is advisable to select technologically advanced machines with automation systems for higher throughputs.
Media Supplies – In order to ensure maximum uptime of the machines, dedicated utilities such as compressed air, steam supply, treated water and electricity are recommended.
Q: In your opinion, why does India lack qualified and skilled CSSD professionals? What are the practical steps that need to be taken to improve this?
Currently, the Indian healthcare system is going through a transition phase. CSSD professionals are very dedicated and skilled. Better infrastructure and exposure will enhance their skill sets and overall outcome. A higher investment in sterile processing should enable CSSD professionals to maintain standards and deliver results. Continuous education is crucial to success. Professionals need in-depth certification courses that teach best practices.
Q: Getinge is emerging as one of the leading providers of all-round sterile solutions for hospitals. Please tell us about Getinge’s expanding CSSD portfolio. How are the customers benefitting from it?
Getinge has quite extensive and evolved product portfolio to address every need of CSSD professionals across the globe. The portfolio consist of wide range of;
- Steam Sterilizers
- Low Temperature Sterilizers
- Washer Disinfectors with accessories
- Cart Washers
- AGS System
- Endoscope Preprocessor’s
- Drying Cabinets
- Heat Sealers
- IT Solutions
- Storage and Transportation Accessories
- Sterility Assurance product range
- Cleaning Solution range
- Packaging Material range
- Getinge IN2 CSSD (modular wall solution)
All these products are with state of art technology with unique advantages in terms of cycle time, operational costs, customization etc. that finally benefits to the customer in terms of financial savings.
Q: We would like to know about Getinge’s T-DOC sterile supply management system, which provides full traceability. Please explain how T-DOC allows hospitals to more effectively use their resources.
T-DOC is the sterile supply management solution that ensures complete traceability, optimized instrument and device utilization, and just-in-time delivery for surgeries, enabling the best possible care for patients. T-DOC provides inventory control, instrument availability and managing instruments and implants tracking at the individual level. In the operating room, T-DOC further enhances patient safety by documenting used instrumentation and pre-sterile goods and providing accurate and auditable electronic records.
It helps hospital to make cost efficient decisions by providing extensive reports and ensure optimal utilization of resources. All activities recorded electronically and can be shared with hospital IT, materials department and with finance system.
Q: Underline the importance of CSSD automation and its advantages for improving processing efficiency and throughput.
Getinge has taken CSSD automation to next level by introducing Air Guide System (AGS), which is automated loading and unloading system. This is proving very beneficial for large and busy CSSD’s where multiple sterilizers and washers placed side by side. It creates bottle neck where trolleys and goods has long waiting period since staff has to manually place them when equipment is available and do manual cycle selection. This not only reduces the efficiency and affects throughput of department but also increases chances of human error. The basic principle of AGS is to improve efficiency and uptime. It is also safe, reliable and hygienic.
Q: How does Getinge’s growing CSSD expertise and innovative technology empower the company to build long-term relationships with hospitals in India?
Being a flag bearer of the infection control industry, company is investing heavily into technological enhancement of all our products through continued R&D efforts especially in reducing cycle time with lesser utilities consumptions to reduce operational cost, high level of automation to eliminate chances of errors, better workflow management for efficiency improvement etc. With our consultative sales approach, planning and designing support, wide range of equipment to suit every requirement of SPD, High quality sterility assurance and cleaning products for performance validation, lastly backing by round the clock service and spares support available locally. Keeping these points in view, today we are preferred supplier to many customers across different markets globally with repeat business.
