One of the most important tools that you will find in a hospital or dentist’s office is their sterilizer. This is a machine that ensures that equipment can be used several times on different people, without having to worry about cross-contamination. In any medical facility, stopping the spread of disease is one of the main priorities, and this strategy cannot be maintained without Cidex OPA sterilization products. Cidex OPA is a recognized high quality brand, guaranteed to function properly. However, it is also very important that the sterilizer itself is good. So how do you know if it is, or isn’t? All good sterilizers have four specific characteristics and that is what you should look for.
The Four Characteristics of a Good Sterilizer to Use with Cidex OPA Sterilization Products
- They are very user friendly in their designer. When a sterilizer fails, it is almost always because of human error and not because of a problem with the machine. Sterilizers should be user friendly in two ways. Firstly, they should be very easy to operate, with a simple user interface. Generally speaking, a sterilizer only has three settings, which can be modified specific to the needs of the user. The three modes are test, user, and maintenance. The second element that has to be user friendly is the chamber itself. It should be free contact so that it can hold numerous pieces of equipment without it becoming less efficacy.
- They are very versatile. A good sterilizer can work on a huge variety of instruments. This is because they should not have specific facilities like water supply lines or vents. Additionally, when aeration time of the process is removed, it can be used for both packaged storage and immediate use. New research in sterilization is always ongoing and one new development has been found in low temperature plasma sterilization. This is a much gentler approach for rigid scopes, thereby reducing the chance of the scopes or other medical equipment getting damaged. An added benefit of not damaging equipment is that it leads to long term savings.
- They have excellent cycling time or speed. Generally speaking, the only way to improve the turnaround time of a device is to shorten its sterilization cycle. On a good sterilizer, particularly one used with Cidex OPA, you can expect a 21 minute cycle as standard, or a 38 minute cycle for advanced features. When the cycle is quicker, medical facilities require less inventory, thereby further reducing costs.
- They have a strong penetration power. This is particularly important in the latest plasma based sterilizers. The penetration power determines how efficient the entire process is. In order for the penetration power to be high, there should be as little air tightness between the lumen chamber and the hose as possible.
If you find a use a high quality sterilization machine with Cidex OPA, you will have a product that not only protects public health, but also helps you to keep your costs low. As such, it can actually offer a return on investment, not in the least by increased overall efficiency.
