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PRESIDENT'S REPORT
 The CSAO Executive met in Toronto on June 14 & 15. In attendance were Cindy Cole, Nancy Aelick, Denise Bosjnak, Darlene Keast, Alan Scott, Jeff Phelps and Louis Konstant. The Executive are happy to announce that Luanne Sutherland Manager of MDR at Thunder Bay Regional Health Science Centre will be representing Lambda Chapter on our Executive Committee. Luanne has also accepted the Lambda President role after being nominated and acclaimed for both positions that were vacant. We have partnered with Riverhorse Brand Advisors to lead us through a Strategic Planning process. Our first session started at this June meeting. It was a great exercise to share ideas and visions on where we want to see the association in five years time. I found it interesting that we had many of the same visions, yet with eight participating many different and wonderful ideas also came out. I am confident in saying that we were all very excited about this process and the possibilities that lay ahead for strengthening our association, membership support and offerings, our MDRT Course and raising the level of recognition for MDRT’s in all health care settings.
Learn More...  Happy Canada Day..! I hope you all had a well deserved great long weekend.Wishing all the MDRD staff a great summer. Hope to see you all at the conference in September. Learn More... VICE PRESIDENT'S REPORT
 CSA Update:Z314.0 - General Requirements Document, the Technical Committee met June 12, 2013 via WebEx to review comments and minor corrections on the Z314.0 General Requirements Document that was published in March. Z314.3 – Effective Sterilization in health care facilities by the steam process, is currently being reviewed and worked on. The committee met via WebEx in May and will meet again in July. Z314.8 - Decontamination of reusable medical devices – Came down from public review, 103 people accessed the site, and 11 people commented on the document. We will meet again at the end of July to review and make any final changes before going to print. Learn More... EDUCATION REPORT
C.S.A.O. MEDICAL DEVICE REPROCESSING TECHNIQUES CLASSROOM COURSES - From JUNE 2013 TO MAY 2014
Register Online Today! Learn More... CHAPTER REPORT
I am pleased at this time to offer this report. This is my first report as a Chapter Representative from Theta Chapter and in my portfolio as one of the two Directors of Chapter Development. I am very honoured to be in a position to do this. Thank you.
As a professional association, we have been very active in our chapters in education and other areas and, from what I am seeing, we are getting better at it. We do need to work on our communications a little bit between the Provincial to the Chapter levels and vice versa. Learn More... On February 12, 2013, the Delta Chapter met at the Woodstock General Hospital, in Woodstock, to tour their new facility. Our members celebrated Valentine's Day with a light snack, and lots of treats.
On May 4, 2013, the Delta Chapter hosted its very first Education Day at White Oaks Conference Resort in St Catherines, ON. Topics included Rigid Telescopes/MIS, Flexible Scopes, Care and Handling of Surgical Instruments, and the new Z314.0.13 CSA Standards. Many thanks to all of our speakers. Learn More... To date this membership year, there have been four ETA chapter meetings. The most recent was held on May 14, 2013 at the Olympus Canada facilities in Richmond Hill.
Learn More... MEMBERSHIP ACITVITY
We currently have 128 members in the Theta Chapter. This year we hosted 4 meetings through OTN followed with Education Presentations * September 5, 2012, Water Quality, presented by Michelle Bellefeuille * November 7, 2012 – Flexible Scopes, presented by Jodi Carroll from Vantage Endoscopy * February 6, 2013 – Basics of Reprocessing, presented by Ian Pequegnat from Steris * April 10, 2013 – Instrument Management Systems, presented by Roy DeMederios from Getinge Learn More... Trevor Lee has resigned as both Lambda Chapter President and Provincial chapter member. He is pursuing a home business venture and we wish him success for the future. His efforts in motivating our chapter have been impressive and we thank him for his years of service and dedication.
The position of vice-president was also vacated with Brenda Spithoff moving on to another position within our hospital facility. She will be missed and we wish her the best in her new role. With these positions becoming available, Luanne Sutherland Manager of SPD at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Science Center has stepped into the president's role. Joe Graham from Thunder Bay has happily stepped in to fill the vice president's shoes. Learn More... SPECIAL EVENTS
The World Forum for Hospital Sterile Supply (WFHSS) is a world-wide community of national and regional associations for hospital sterile supply staff members and professionals from the industry.
Learn More... The Annual Congress of the World Forum for Hospital Sterile Supply (WFHSS) is the prime international event for specialists of sterilization, held this year in Turkey. WFHSS and DAS Congresses have established traditions where practitioners and professionals meet together to capture innovations and new ideas in the field, and provide feedback for the future.
14th World Sterilization Congress & 8th National Sterilization Disinfection Congress of Turkey will be held in Antalya, Turkey at Susesi Convention Center, between 6 and 9 November, 2013. The chosen venue for the congress has all facilities designed for international events and congresses. Learn More... CANADIAN STANDARDS & ACCREDITATION
This Standard sets out requirements for health care settings to establish, document and maintain their own policies and procedures for the reprocessing of medical devices, forming a unique internal QMS.
Learn More... Provincial Infectious Diseases Advisory Committee (PIDAC) document with latest revisions (Feb 2010).
Learn More... Accreditation Canada's Standards for the Reprocessing and Sterilization of Reusable Medical Devices were prepared in response to requests from health service organizations, regulators and governments for a set of national standards. They have been developed in conjunction with the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) and incorporate many elements from existing CSA standards.
Learn More...  The complexity and temperature sensitivity of flexible endoscopes makes cleaning followed by sterilization/disinfection difficult. While sterilization may be optimal, the minimum acceptable standard for reprocessing endoscopes is high level disinfection (HLD). At all times, cleaning must precede high level disinfection. Endoscopic accessories do require sterilization. Whenever flexible endoscopes are reprocessed, those involved in the reprocessing must adhere to the validated protocol recommended by the manufacturer of the endoscope.
Learn More... ARTICLES RELATED TO STERILIZATION AND DECONTAMINATION
Did you know that during a surgical procedure, the tools and devices that are used to repair you have gone through a rigorous Quality Assurance program by a very specialized team to ensure each device is clean, functional and sterile?
This team is Medical Device Reprocessing and every day in healthcare facilities across the country, they clean, disinfect, assemble and sterilize the equipment that is needed to perform your surgery. This is a team that does not have direct patient care, however, they play an extremely important part in patient safety. Lorna is currently the Manager at Southlake Regional Health Centre, Sterile Processing Department. She was previously the educator/coordinator at Southlake Regional Health Centre and a supervisor at three major downtown hospitals in Toronto, starting her career in England 30 years ago. Learn More... The Medical Device Reprocessing Centre (MDRC) at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto provides a critical service at the heart of infection control, as it ensures all equipment used on patients is safe and sterile.
Several times a day, the MDRC receives soiled instruments, devices and hardware, such as stainless steel bowls and instrument trays, from operating rooms and clinics. The centre decontaminates, washes, disinfects, dries, packs, sterilizes and cools instruments and returns them to the operating rooms and clinics as quickly as possible, using a bar code instrument tracking system to ensure delivery to the appropriate destination. Learn More... Last year, the Minnesota Technical Assistance Program, or MnTAP, partnered with researchers at the University of Minnesota’s bioproducts and biosystems engineering department -- as well as a surgical services division at the Mayo Clinic -- to assess the lifecycle environmental impact of both reusable cases and disposable wrap at the Mayo Clinic.
Learn More... Risk is "immeasurably" low from improperly cleaned endoscope but not zero.
The discovery that a Quebec hospital failed to properly sterilize an endoscope for eight years points to a need for tracking and reporting whether hospitals are following stringent cleaning practices, a medical expert says. Learn More... Greetings to All I hope everyone is enjoying the summer and some relaxing time away from the reprocessing world. September and the annual CSAO Conference is just around the corner. I hope many of you will attend once again and looking forward to meeting all the familiar as well as the new delegates. We are happy to be putting out this July 2013 e-newsletter, the last before the conference.
We have made a few improvements and additions to the CSAO website including online payment for Membership, Education and the Annual Conference. We have a CSAO LinkedIn Group that is now active to keep members updated and encourage all to connect.
The CSAO's Goals will continue to be to concentrate our efforts in developing and growing in the following areas: Communication (internal and external), Recognition and Image Building and Education. To develop and implement strategic plans to improve communications, promote our image and to sustain current, as well as build additional educational resources. Through this, the CSAO will position itself as an active and viable voice for Reprocessing Departments nationally. The CSAO vision shall be to provide the members of the Association and healthcare facilities with organized educational opportunities, professional development, a forum for information exchange, and member services in response to member identified needs and priorities, and to represent members in the professional community. This e-Newsletter will provide updates and information from the Executive Committee, Chapter Reports and other articles and links related to Standards, Conferences and Educational Opportunities.
Please let me know if you have any ideas to add to any upcoming eNewsletters. |
FMI POLL Have you attained Medical Device Reprocessing Certification or Recertification in the last five (5) years?
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