Infection Prevention & Control Topic: Sterile Processing

CDC: Health Alert- Use Only Sterile Ultrasound Gel for Percutaneous Procedures (5/13/2025)

  • Health Alert: Use Only Sterile Ultrasound Gel for Percutaneous Procedures (5/13/2025)
    • An ongoing multistate investigation involves the use of non-sterile ultrasound gel during ultrasound-guided percutaneous procedures. An environmental bacterium Paraburkholderia fungorum has been identified from patient cultures and non-sterile ultrasound gel products.
    • CDC recommends using only single-use ultrasound gel products labeled as "sterile" to reduce the risk of infection during ultrasonography for preparatory and procedural applications, including central and peripheral intravenous line placement, amniocentesis, paracentesis, tissue biopsies, and surgical interventions.

Sterile Surgical Instrument Peel Packs: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly with Amy Britton (video)

This short (2.43 minute) video provides a thorough and engaging explanation about how a worker can validate that a peel pack that has been sterilized may continue to be considered sterile, or how it should be rejected, and not used.

3 – Intermediate
Acute Care Hospital
Acute Care Rehabilitation or Long-Term Care Acute Hospital (LTACH)
Ambulatory (Outpatient) Care
Ambulatory Surgery
Clinical / Direct Healthcare Personnel
Dental
Dialysis
Emergency Medical Services (EMS)
English
Free
Hospice and Palliative Care
Infection Preventionists
Non-Clinical / Indirect Healthcare Personnel
Nursing Home / Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF)
Pediatric / NICU
Sterile Processing
VDH
Video

Environmental Rounds Worksheet For Infection Prevention

This is a 5 page checklist that is intended for teams that are conducting infection prevention environmental rounding. It is designed for rounding in a hospital, but as a WORD-based document, can be adapted for other healthcare settings.

3 – Intermediate
Acute Care Hospital
Acute Care Rehabilitation or Long-Term Care Acute Hospital (LTACH)
Adult Day Care
Ambulatory (Outpatient) Care
Ambulatory Surgery
Assisted Living Facility (ALF)
Auditing / Observation / Monitoring / Assessment Tools
Behavioral Health Facilities
Checklist
Cleaning and Disinfection
Clinical / Direct Healthcare Personnel
Dental
Department of Health
Dialysis
Downloadable
English
Free
High Level Disinfection
Hospice and Palliative Care
Infection Preventionists
Injection Safety
Mobile Clinic
Non-Clinical / Indirect Healthcare Personnel
Nursing Home / Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF)
Pediatric / NICU
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
Physical Environment / Environment of Care (EOC)
Quality Improvement
Risk Assessment
SPICE
Standard Precautions
Sterile Processing

Central Processing Tour

This is a 25:55 minute video in which Dr. William Rutala conducts a tour through the Central Processing Area of a hospital. He explains all parts of the disinfection- sterilization- packaging and sterility process.

3 – Intermediate
Acute Care Hospital
Acute Care Rehabilitation or Long-Term Care Acute Hospital (LTACH)
Ambulatory (Outpatient) Care
Ambulatory Surgery
Cleaning and Disinfection
Clinical / Direct Healthcare Personnel
English
Free
Infection Preventionists
Non-Clinical / Indirect Healthcare Personnel
Pediatric / NICU
SPICE
Sterile Processing
Video

Instrument Reprocessing: High-Level Disinfection and Sterilization For The Infection Preventionist

This is an online course with 5 modules intended to provide infection preventionists with the understanding about how high level disinfection and sterilization are performed, how a facility can prevent infections due to improper reprocessing and how a facility can assure regulatory compliance. The modules are: 1) Physical Plant Design, 2) Spaulding Classification Scheme, 3) Decontamination, Precleaning, and Transport, 4) High-Level Disinfection (HLD), and 5) Sterilization Process.

SPICE

IPC Intermediate Level 

English 

Video

CNE

CEU

Infection Preventionist 

Ambulatory (Outpatient) Care 

Ambulatory Surgery 

Acute Care Rehabilitation Hospital or Long-term Care Acute Hospital (LTACH) 

Acute Care Hospital 

Pediatric/NICU 

Dental 

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Physical Environment / Environment of Care (EOC)

Cleaning & Disinfection

High-Level Disinfection

Sterile Processing

Auditing/ Observation/ Monitoring/ Assessment Tools

Regulatory Compliance

Outbreak Investigation

Surgical Site Infection (SSI)

HICPAC Sample Root Cause Analysis Template: Reprocessing Flexible Endoscopes

Facilities can use this sample Root Cause Analysis as a template to develop their own tool to pinpoint and understand process breakdowns that resulted in a flexible endoscope reprocessing event with undesired outcomes.

Intermediate
Acute Care Hospital
Acute Care Rehabilitation or Long-Term Care Acute Hospital (LTACH)
Ambulatory (Outpatient) Care
Ambulatory Surgery
Auditing / Observation / Monitoring / Assessment Tools
CDC
Cleaning and Disinfection
Clinical / Direct Healthcare Personnel
English
Free
High Level Disinfection
Infection Preventionists
Non-Clinical / Indirect Healthcare Personnel
Outbreak Investigation
Pediatric / NICU
Quality Improvement
Risk Assessment
Sterile Processing
Toolkit

HICPAC Sample Gap Analysis and Risk Assessment Tool: Reprocessing Flexible Endoscopes

Facilities can use these sample Gap Analysis and Risk Assessment Tools as templates to develop their own quality improvement tools to be used in conjunction with a complete facility flexible endoscope inventory and the manufacturer’s instructions for use (IFU) for each flexible endoscope. If reprocessing practices are found to have gaps, the tools will help facilities determine where those gaps are and help them create a prioritized plan of action to address and ameliorate them.

Intermediate
Acute Care Hospital
Acute Care Rehabilitation or Long-Term Care Acute Hospital (LTACH)
Ambulatory (Outpatient) Care
Ambulatory Surgery
Auditing / Observation / Monitoring / Assessment Tools
CDC
Cleaning and Disinfection
Clinical / Direct Healthcare Personnel
English
Free
High Level Disinfection
Infection Preventionists
Non-Clinical / Indirect Healthcare Personnel
Pediatric / NICU
Quality Improvement
Risk Assessment
Sterile Processing
Toolkit

HICPAC Sample Facility Endoscope Inventory: Flexible Endoscopes

This is an EXCEL worksheet designed for facilities to use as a template to develop their own tool to track their flexible endoscope inventory and repair and maintenance log. This sample inventory is designed to be used in conjunction with the Repair and Maintenance Log. The inventory should be updated any time (1) there is a change in the status or cleaning protocol of a flexible endoscope; (2) a new flexible endoscope is purchased or (3) a flexible endoscope is decommissioned. It can be part of a facility’s risk assessment.

Intermediate
Acute Care Hospital
Acute Care Rehabilitation or Long-Term Care Acute Hospital (LTACH)
Ambulatory (Outpatient) Care
Ambulatory Surgery
Auditing / Observation / Monitoring / Assessment Tools
CDC
Cleaning and Disinfection
Clinical / Direct Healthcare Personnel
English
Free
High Level Disinfection
Infection Preventionists
Non-Clinical / Indirect Healthcare Personnel
Pediatric / NICU
Quality Improvement
Risk Assessment
Sterile Processing
Toolkit