ConCensis

Creating Sterile Processing Department schedules that make the most of a staff’s time requires a complete understanding and visibility of the demands of a particular healthcare facility. And to gain that big picture, a department needs data and lots of it. Still, more than that, a Sterile Processing Department needs a platform solution that provides reporting in an innovative and actionable way.

What’s the next generation of technology available to make SPD scheduling demands less challenging?

Tyler Kern, the host of ConCensis, came together with Seamus Johnson, Sr. Director of Application Development for Censis, Jeff Long, Network Director of Sterile Processing at St. Luke’s University Health Network, and Cody Troutt, Director of Central Sterile at Williamson Medical for a third, and final discussion on Censis’ new CensisAI2 Productivity platform.

This third conversation with Kern, Johnson, Long, and Troutt includes the following:

• The importance of optimized SPD staff utilization
• Creating tray efficiencies through data analysis
• Advice for hospitals considering or evaluating the CensisAI2 tool

“You have to be able to demonstrate to them (the C-Suite) a return on investment,” Troutt said. “It doesn’t matter if you work for a for-profit or not-for-profit hospital. Your not-for-profit hospitals are not for a loss either.”

Seamus Johnson is an experienced Senior Software Engineer with a demonstrated history of working in the hospital & healthcare industry. Johnson’s proficiency in Software Architecture, Agile Methodologies, C#, Angular, and TypeScript makes him a valued asset to the Censis team, where he’s spent most of his career.

Jeff Long is an experienced Department Director with a demonstrated history of working in the hospital & healthcare industry. Long is skilled in Medical Devices, Infection Control, Orthopedics, Capital Equipment, and Healthcare. Strong business development professional with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) focused on Organizational Management and Leadership Development from Ashford University.

Cody Troutt is an experienced Customer Service Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the hospital & healthcare industry. Troutt’s a strong support professional skilled in Coaching, Medical Devices, Sales, Team Building, and HR Policies.

There are an estimated 51.4 million inpatient surgeries performed in the U.S. on an annual basis. That’s a lot of reusable instruments that require sterile processing. It’s no wonder Sterile Processing Departments (SPDs) have their hands full. Labor shortages, mainly since the pandemic, put tremendous strain on already taxed SPDs.

Censis creates solutions to give SPD departments an edge in streamlined efficiency and data-driven analysis to provide actionable insights. Their latest solution, CensisAI2 Productivity, combines with CensiTrac to deliver SPDs with the complete visibility they need to increase productivity in sterile processing.

Tyler Kern, the host of ConCensis, rejoined with Seamus Johnson, Sr. Director of Application Development for Censis, Jeff Long, Network Director of Sterile Processing at St. Luke’s University Health Network, and Cody Troutt, Director of Central Sterile at Williamson Medical continued their discussion on the CensisAI2 Productivity solution.

This second conversation with Kern, Johnson, Long, and Troutt includes the following:

• The challenges of visibility in operational processes for SPDs
• Best practices for utilizing CensisAI2 and CensiTrac
• How CensisAI2’s dashboard helps SPD managers be proactive

“One thing that we had realized was that our existing technology had not been optimized or even built,” Long said. “We had no standardization on how to use the technology we were using. We had a lot of work to do, and that’s why the timing was perfect on a lot of the technology we incorporated since then.”

Seamus Johnson is an experienced Senior Software Engineer with a demonstrated history of working in the hospital & healthcare industry. Johnson’s proficiency in Software Architecture, Agile Methodologies, C#, Angular, and TypeScript makes him a valued asset to the Censis team, where he’s spent most of his career.

Jeff Long is an experienced Department Director with a demonstrated history of working in the hospital & healthcare industry. Long is skilled in Medical Devices, Infection Control, Orthopedics, Capital Equipment, and Healthcare. Strong business development professional with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) focused on Organizational Management and Leadership Development from Ashford University.

Cody Troutt is an experienced Customer Service Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the hospital & healthcare industry. Troutt’s a strong support professional skilled in Coaching, Medical Devices, Sales, Team Building, and HR Policies.

Many areas of healthcare struggle with staffing issues, requiring personnel to do more with fewer resources. Sterile processing departments are not immune to these issues. Today, increased responsibilities and difficulty finding and retaining qualified employees to manage these critical tasks are challenging to solve.

Even with data tracking tools and platforms, making sense of all that collected data to take actionable steps to create efficiencies can take time and effort. So, what can sterile processing departments do?

Tyler Kern, the host of ConCensis, welcomed three guests to the show to discuss the issue and a solution Censis created to work together with its CensiTrac Instrument Tracking System to provide actionable insights that will help streamline operations to achieve department goals. CensisAI2 Productivity is that solution, and on this first of three episodes, Seamus Johnson, Sr. Director of Application Development for Censis, Jeff Long, Network Director of Sterile Processing at St. Luke’s University Health Network, and Cody Troutt, Director of Central Sterile at Williamson Medical laid the foundation for the need create productivity solutions for sterile processing departments.

This first discussion with Kern, Johnson, Long, and Troutt includes the following:

• Why measuring productivity in sterile processing departments is essential.
• The staffing challenges SPD departments face in today’s healthcare landscape.
• Validating staffing needs through actionable data.

“Always have an elevator speech in your back pocket,” Troutt said. “Because you never know when you’ll get on the elevator, and your chief, whatever title, will be there. And you must have that in your back pocket, ready to go all the time. Data is something that they’ll most always listen to.”

Seamus Johnson is an experienced Senior Software Engineer with a demonstrated history of working in the hospital & healthcare industry. Johnson’s proficiency in Software Architecture, Agile Methodologies, C#, Angular, and TypeScript makes him a valued asset to the Censis team, where he’s spent most of his career.

Jeff Long is an experienced Department Director with a demonstrated history of working in the hospital & healthcare industry. Long is skilled in Medical Devices, Infection Control, Orthopedics, Capital Equipment, and Healthcare. Strong business development professional with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) focused on Organizational Management and Leadership Development from Ashford University.

Cody Troutt is an experienced Customer Service Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the hospital & healthcare industry. Troutt’s a strong support professional skilled in Coaching, Medical Devices, Sales, Team Building, and HR Policies.

There are many details that go into prepping an OR and all the instruments necessary for safe and sterile surgeries. Surgical technicians must keep detailed records of these tasks to ensure the room is ready for surgery.

Using EFT, or efficiency tasks, shifts maintenance into the 21st century. Moving away from handwritten paper logs and going digital, SPDs are able to keep strict records and quickly check references when necessary.

On this episode, Gabrielle Bejarano hosts Kelly Swails, Director of Clinical Services at Censis Technologies, and Desiree Acedo, CST, CRCST, CIS, Supervisor Sterile Processing Department at Centennial Hills Hospital Medical Center. They break down the complexities required to prepare ORs and how EFT technology supports the role, ensuring patient safety and the highest level of care. The episode covers…

• What is an efficiency task list, and how it’s used in the sterile processing department.
• Reporting and the necessary documentation that’s supported by EFT to ensure compliance.
• What tasks are pre-built into CensiTrac.

Most of the documentation from a surgical tech is considered legal paperwork and held to an incredibly high standard. “It’s really streamlined and freed up my time to do the 1,000 other tasks that I have to do,” said Acedo. Daily reports support managers and ensure compliance, “Someone is getting those emails and verifying that those things are done,” said Kelly Swails.

Kelly Swails started as a surgical technician and went on to receive her bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Northwestern in St. Paul. She’s been working in healthcare since 2003. Desiree Acedo is a surgical tech by trade and is now a sterile processing supervisor. She coordinates between sterile processing and the OR. Trained at the University of Phoenix, she's been in the field since 1995.

If you have any questions about EFT, or would like more information about how you can use them at your facility reach out to [email protected].

Sterile Processing Departments (SPDs), as with all other industries in healthcare, are struggling with supply chain concerns, a lack of steady commitment from staff, and a workforce shortage. Additionally, SPDs have long dealt with issues in staffing shortages, which even extends to how facilities maximize their spaces. Seamus Johnson, Senior Director of Application Development at Censis Technologies, and Barry Phetteplace, Chief Technology Officer at Censis Technologies, spoke with Tyler Kern about these issues and how powerful data analytics tools like CensisAI2 Productivity can help combat these challenges.

Understanding resource utilization and where the gaps lie is fundamental to creating the efficiencies required to get the job done when workers are in short supply.

“Until you’ve delved into that data and really understand, a lot of times it’s guesswork,” Phetteplace said. “If you’re a small SPD where you only have a few techs, maybe it’s a little easier, but if you’re a large facility or a large IDN with multiple facilities, it becomes that much more difficult.”

Johnson said there are several levels of data that perioperative and sterile processing leaders want, and need visibility over their operative needs. “At the high level, what’s important is being able to see everything your department’s doing, seeing what your throughput is in terms of how many trays you’re able to process for the OR. That’s your capacity to support the cases and patients.”

Having data is one thing; accessing it and making sense of it is another. Creating cumbersome pivot tables can take hours to get the data into usable shape. It isn’t typically something a person running a sterile processing department wants to spend their valuable time doing. Phetteplace said Censis understands these challenges. Censis designed CensisAI2 Productivity to provide a faster way to analyze data. “We want to understand if we’re winning or losing. That was the mantra we had going into this, understanding the concept of productivity. It shouldn’t take me fifteen minutes to dig through tab after tab and look at complicated charts and graphs to understand if I’m winning or losing.”

Interested in learning more about Censis Technologies’ surgical asset management platform? Visit Censis.com.

This year, the theme for the Censis Technologies Users Conference (CTUC), is the “Power of Purpose.” ConCensis Host Gabrielle Bejarano was joined by the following from Censis to dive into the purpose of the conference and this year’s theme: President Ankush Kaul, Allison Flood, VP, Customer Success & Service, Barry Phetteplace, Chief Technology Officer, and Seamus Johnson, Senior Director of Application Development.

Kaul explained that the conference became a formality due to customer feedback that revealed the essentiality of networking, sharing similar challenges, and learning about the best tools to make daily life better.

“Think of it as a community of dedicated individuals coming together to learn about what’s the best way to do their jobs and the best way to serve patients,” Kaul explained.

Almost every individual will rely upon healthcare services and the sterile processing industry at some point in their lives. “Despite the highly technical and very critical job that the folks in sterile processing do, they are an under-recognized group and so we have an opportunity to really elevate that group through what we do,” Johnson said. “We all depend on the healthcare system.”

One of the centerpieces of CTUC is the continuing education it offers attendees, which is key in the healthcare industry. “The world that we live in is not static at all, and that is especially true for the healthcare sector,” stated Kaul. “It becomes supercritical to stay ahead of all the changes that are going on in the marketplace and technologies and processes for us to be able to serve our customers better and ensure patient safety,” he continued.

“Getting all of that brainpower in one event together, in one room together is just such a great way to learn from each other,” Flood added.

In addition to the innovation and brainpower the conference spurs, the significance of the communication piece of CTUC cannot be overlooked. Phetteplace explained that voice of the customer (VOC) is a common method of interacting with customers that requires having scripted questions to capture data, quantify it, and solve problems. “The value of something like CTUC is that it is less about that scripted, VOC (voice of customer) type of interaction and more about freeform communication with our customers,” explained Phetteplace.

This year’s CTUC theme is the “Power of Purpose.” Kaul elaborated upon the personal meaning of this theme: “The community we interact with on a day-to-day business gets to impact patient safety and by just doing our job and making it better and ensuring patient safety, we are not only impacting direct customers, which are the patients, but a lot of families that are associated with that.”

For more from Censis, visit Spotify, Apple iTunes, or www.marketscale.com.

This year, the theme for the Censis Technologies Users Conference (CTUC), is the “Power of Purpose.” ConCensis Host Gabrielle Bejarano was joined by the following from Censis to dive into the purpose of the conference and this year’s theme: President Ankush Kaul, Allison Flood, VP, Customer Success & Service, Barry Phetteplace, Chief Technology Officer, and Seamus Johnson, Senior Director of Application Development.

Kaul explained that the conference became a formality due to customer feedback that revealed the essentiality of networking, sharing similar challenges, and learning about the best tools to make daily life better.

“Think of it as a community of dedicated individuals coming together to learn about what’s the best way to do their jobs and the best way to serve patients,” Kaul explained.

Almost every individual will rely upon healthcare services and the sterile processing industry at some point in their lives. “Despite the highly technical and very critical job that the folks in sterile processing do, they are an under-recognized group and so we have an opportunity to really elevate that group through what we do,” Johnson said. “We all depend on the healthcare system.”

One of the centerpieces of CTUC is the continuing education it offers attendees, which is key in the healthcare industry. “The world that we live in is not static at all, and that is especially true for the healthcare sector,” stated Kaul. “It becomes supercritical to stay ahead of all the changes that are going on in the marketplace and technologies and processes for us to be able to serve our customers better and ensure patient safety,” he continued.

“Getting all of that brainpower in one event together, in one room together is just such a great way to learn from each other,” Flood added.

In addition to the innovation and brainpower the conference spurs, the significance of the communication piece of CTUC cannot be overlooked. Phetteplace explained that voice of the customer (VOC) is a common method of interacting with customers that requires having scripted questions to capture data, quantify it, and solve problems. “The value of something like CTUC is that it is less about that scripted, VOC (voice of customer) type of interaction and more about freeform communication with our customers,” explained Phetteplace.

This year’s CTUC theme is the “Power of Purpose.” Kaul elaborated upon the personal meaning of this theme: “The community we interact with on a day-to-day business gets to impact patient safety and by just doing our job and making it better and ensuring patient safety, we are not only impacting direct customers, which are the patients, but a lot of families that are associated with that.”

For more from Censis, visit Spotify, Apple iTunes, or www.marketscale.com.

Endoscopes are complex surgical assets made with various intricate parts depending on their use. Processing includes sterilizing, cleaning, transporting, and storing these tools. All of this requires intense asset management. To discuss moving scope process into the technological age, host Tyler Kern invited Jacob Long, Director - Sales Engineering, and Hannah Shipp, Product Owner - Censis to the podcast.

“You see a lot of complexity and variations in the scopes out there. It’s a diverse surgical asset,” said Long, “The process and regulations vary with different endoscopes, depending on the type of instrument and its use. Scopes have similar expectations and rules for processing relative to the type of scope. It’s not the same as sterile instruments, where an instrument can sit on a shelf until it’s compromised. Whereas scopes have hang-times or storage times.”.

ScopeTrac Advanced allows technicians to ensure each scope is processed correctly every time. It tracks all the complexities and changes for different types of endoscopes. “We developed a product that meets all customer needs… they can add settings based on the scope's specific needs,” said Shipp, “A lot of times, issues related to endoscopes come down to patient safety. If you can track your scope inventory properly including, testing, leak tests, the number of times it's been processed, and all sorts of processes related to the different scope types then you can easily follow what you should be doing helping to improve the safety of your patients.”

The software tracks key elements of sterilization making sure all requirements are met for endoscope reprocessing. Consolidating, tracking, and updating the information for each device is key to patient safety. ScopeTrac Advanced continues to evolve with helpful feedback from clients. Learn more about the software here.

Everything begins with the customer journey to create the innovations that will shape the future of sterile processing. Barry Phetteplace, Chief Technology Officer at Censis, and Susan Isaac, Product Director at Censis, shared the strategy that guides their teams in developing advanced sterile processing solutions.

Isaac said Censis tackles a problem by examining the customer process and finding out what they cannot do today or would like to do better. “Because all innovation, no matter how cool it is and no matter how amazing it looks and feels, at the end of the day, it’s useful only if it truly provides value to the customers.” The approach Censis takes is to examine the customer’s workday, map out their process, and understand their workflow. “Once we understand their entire workflow of the typical day for them, then we try to identify pain points and gaps,” Isaac said.

Through customer research, Phetteplace said Censis found that the pandemic created a situation where workers need to do more with less, and solutions that create efficiencies are in high demand. And one of the best ways to make an impact in creating the correct answer is to understand the data qualitatively.

“Being a SaaS-based company, we have access to all this data,” Phetteplace said. “Starting to sift through that and help provide meaningful analysis is something that many customers are looking for. Help us understand what we’re doing well. Help us understand what we’re not doing so well. What could we do if we’re not doing well? How do we do better? Trying to come up with solutions that highlight those sorts of questions and provide answers are things that we’re going to be focused on and things our customers are going to be looking for.”

Visit Censis.com to learn more about Censis Technologies’ surgical asset management platform.

There’s never been a greater need for hospitals and other healthcare operations to have full visibility into their assets and how they’re being used in operating room settings and beyond.

In a healthcare landscape that’s seen most healthcare operations adopt some form of electronic health records (EHR) solution, Censis’ solutions can integrate with those capabilities and provide a more intuitive, seamless experience in ensuring that visibility.

To discuss the benefits of Censis solutions like CensiTrac and ScopeTrac Advanced in providing Sterile Processing Departments and Operating Room suites effective visibility of case needs, asset allocations, patient use, and the means to document and communicate facility-specific events related to case picking and utilization, host Shelby Skrhak was joined for this episode of Censis’ podcast by Jacob Long.

Long is a Business Development Manager and Sales Engineer for Censis. He’s personally implemented Censis solutions for years and witnessed firsthand the value for customers that derive from the visibility and traceability the organization’s systems provide via the user-friendly and customer-focused application.

The world of sterile processing and perioperative departments is constantly evolving and requires a comprehensive system to fit any facility’s workflow and needs, and Long shared why Censis’s solutions fit that mission and help organizations reprocess assets readily and safely.

Interested in learning more about Censis Technologies' surgical asset management platform? Visit Censis.com.