Growth and innovation are part of the lifeblood of Penn Medicine. And they happen in ways that may not be obvious, and may go unsung. Growth is not just about big buildings, such as the 1.5 million-square-foot Pavilion at HUP, or the major expansion of Chester County Hospital. Innovation is not just about high-tech tools or apps. The new Interventional Support Center is a perfect example — it shows how we strive to work better and smarter at everything we do. The new ISC facility will transform the way two of our downtown hospitals clean and sterilize instruments to ensure that surgeries and other interventional procedures happen with maximum efficiency and safety. When a clinical team needs an OR, they’ll always have one that’s stocked and ready with the tools they need — faster and more effectively than ever before. You may not think much about how a scalpel gets into a surgeon’s hand. But the sharp minds behind the new ISC do — and thanks to them, we’re doing it better.
Keeping Pace with Demand: Bringing Instrument Processing to a New Level
With the recent groundbreaking for the Interventional Support Center, Penn Medicine will be taking a new approach in sterile instrument processing (IP), ensuring that the supply of clean and sterilized equipment keeps pace with the increasing demand – and sets new standards for the health care field.
Opening in November 2020, the ISC will be the first such facility in the tri-state area and the largest in the country. Designed to process instruments from up to 250 surgical cases each day, the center will initially combine IP services from HUP and Pennsylvania Hospital, as well as their respective outpatient facilities: the Perelman Center and the Tuttleman Center. The Pavilion will come on board as well, when it opens in 2021. The ISC will be located in Southwest Philadelphia, at 3250 South 76th St., within 10 miles of all downtown hospitals.
At nearly 110,000 square feet, the ISC will provide the breathing room these departments need to expand services. Indeed, according to Chris Pastore, ISC managing director, instrument processing at HUP has reached full capacity, and PAH is reaching that point as well.
How will the ISC work? Very simply, each day, special box trucks will pick up soiled instruments (carefully packed to ensure safety) at designated drop-off locations in each of the entities and bring them to a specific entrance on one side of the ISC. The instruments will then be processed — meeting all the distinct cleaning and sterilizing needs of the varied surgical equipment — and then reassembled and packed into clean carts. These instruments will either be stored at the facility until needed or loaded onto the trucks on the other side of the facility for transport back to the respective facility, at night.
Reaping Multiple Benefits
Not only will the ISC allow for expansion, it will also bring the cleaning and sterilizing process to new levels. As April Cardone, MBA, MPH, project manager for the ISC, explained, the facility will generate its own “clean steam” from water that first undergoes reverse osmosis filtering. This eliminates minerals that can lead to deposits on the instruments, similar to what you might see on glasses from a dishwasher. While these deposits are only annoying at home, “they can lead to instrument degradation,” Cardone said. “Our clean steam will help prolong the life of the equipment.”
In addition to improving the efficiency and flow of instrument processing, the ISC will also benefit IP staff. With significant input from Alexandra Rella, PT, DPT, injury prevention specialist, the facility’s design — from the case carts to the instrument trays — was created with ergonomic principles in mind. For example, the wash sinks used to initially soak the instruments — the first step in the decontamination process — are height adjustable, which will allow the staff to work in safe comfortable postures. “Being able to minimize that forward bending by adjusting the sink height will have a significant impact on how a person’s back feels at the end of the work day and decrease the risk of developing a back injury over time,” Rella said.
The new facility will also include a redesign of the racks that hold instrument trays, which can weigh up to 25 pounds. Typically, the trays are stored on horizontal, six-foot-high wire racks, requiring employees to either bend or reach up to retrieve them. In the ISC, instrument trays will be stored on an 18-foot-high structure that rotates vertically, much like the horizontal carousel used at a dry cleaner that easily moves clothes around the track. The employee can stop the rotation at any height, allowing easy access to the tray.
“This will be a visionary facility,” said Philip Okala, COO of the Health System. “We haven’t even started building and we are already receiving invitations from other major academic medical centers to learn more.”