A clinical engineering approach for design and management of Central Sterilization Units

Central Sterilization Unit (CSU) are the units that performs sterilization of medical devices, instruments and consumables which used in hospitals and these units are planned to provide services within a quality management system and traceability. The numbers of sterilization procedures are carried out in medium and large scale hospitals, this situation can lead to reduced efficiency of the sterilization process have become critical. In this study, using a medium scale hospital as base, planning to work in coordination with the clinical engineering unit the structure of a central sterilization unit that coordinated to work with clinical engineering unit is recommended. The following issues are discussed in detail: architecture of the CSU, departments, staff, process of monitoring, validation and quality cycles. In addition, contributions to the technical efficiency of the sterilization process from biomedical engineers and technicians which are appointed by the clinical engineering units were examined.