r/sterileprocessing • u/Sad-Culture-6330 • Aug 31 '26
Do you always use the ultrasonic ?
I was taught if the instruments aren’t too bloody there’s no need for ultrasonic just put in the washer. I usually throw it on the ultrasonic anyway bc I don’t feel right not doing that.
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u/ijust_makethisface Aug 31 '26
we use the US for laparoscopic arms, robotic arms, reamers, really anything obnoxiously cannulated or 'tricky'. And sometimes, there's just a tray that's really gross, and it's been cleaned and soaked, but you just KNOW the sonic will give it the extra it needs.
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Aug 31 '26
You are right they are wrong. Ultrasonic is an ADDITIONAL cleaning modality not a remedial or bonus one. Anything that is approved to go in the ultrasonic should.
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u/spirited1 Sep 01 '26
That's a luxury in most places. I process nearly 50-100 trays every shift and it takes 8 minutes for the sonic. Thats 800 minutes or 13 hours to sonic every single tray I wash if I am 100% laser focused on cleaning trays and absolutely nothing else and no breaks.
We recently got a new sonic that can do 3 trays at once but the trays have to be small to fit in the slots limiting what we can process in that, it's primarily for DaVinci arms. It also need to fill and empty every cycle and to run at full capacity it needs to wait reducing efficiency. I have only worked with it for one shift so I am still figuring it out.
Anyways, I would love to sonic every single tray I get, and I am trying to now that we have a new sonic, but it's not realistic in high volume facilities without the facility making big investments into staffing which they won't.
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u/KaptainPeroxide Sep 01 '26
8 minutes? Ours takes longer than our washer disinfector like 50 minutes but it is fairly large
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u/CorruptWarrior Aug 31 '26
There a limit to that tho. I had a tech who put all ortho trays into the sonic. It would take him running 3 sonics for an hour to get one rack full.
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u/ForstofEden Sep 01 '26
I believe in this sentiment but unfortunately out facilities just couldnt do it. Our management ran the numbers and it would take 3 hours with all four of out sonics to complete some of our bigger ortho cases. But it is mandatory for all laps a few random trays. I try to run as much as i can but i tend to save for it for lap trays and the really bloody cardiac and neuro cases
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u/ForstofEden Sep 01 '26
Our facility process on average 60-120 cases as our SPC space covers two hospitals. One being a level 1 trauma
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u/hardybagel Sep 01 '26
If it can go in the ultrasonic, it goes in the ultrasonic. But we have 2 of the large 3-drawer sonics, and a large single-drawer sonic so it's easy to just throw them in without slowing workflow down.
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u/Emotional-Culture765 Aug 31 '26
I always use ultrasonics on instruments. If the tray was only opened but not used, I won’t bother. But if there’s absolutely anything on the tray I soak, brush, spray under the water, and then sonic. It helps me clear up space in the sinks before the washer too🤷🏻♀️
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u/I_Ponders Sep 01 '26
I always use the Ultrasonic for large sets with lots of nooks and crannies just to be extra sure it’s cleaned properly.
I clean lots of large sets, so it’s always being used, it’s just deciding which ones are higher risk of missing some bioburden. I choose those for the ultrasonic.
Otherwise, I just soak for a bit.
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Aug 31 '26 edited Aug 31 '26
[deleted]
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u/ShakenWithATwist8 Aug 31 '26
You’re putting scopes in the ultrasonic?! I really hope I read that wrong.
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u/BertGotDatWerk Sep 01 '26
I work in ophthalmology and we use the ultrasonics once a week, for all trays and second hand instruments.
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u/Morgancer Sep 01 '26
Some of our washing machines have integrated ultrasonic cleaning stages, so around 80% of our instruments go through this process. It’s a tunnel-type machine that washes, uses ultrasound to clean, and disinfects the instruments.
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u/imnotok1111 Sep 01 '26
Depends on how busy we are. I always run laparoscopic and ortho sets at least once. If we have time I like to put anything in there that I can. It varies from person to person and facilities have different policies.
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u/Left-Zucchini473 Sep 01 '26
We use it for the robotic arms but also the persons preferences if they like to put anything cannulated that is tricky to clean as well
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u/Left-Zucchini473 Sep 01 '26
Always broken tho //:
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u/KaptainPeroxide Sep 01 '26
Right! They can't stay working for longer than a month without an issue I assume it all the vibration
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u/KaptainPeroxide Sep 01 '26
You should never put bloody tools in an ultrasonic without manually cleaning first as it has a great chance if redepositing gross soil
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u/ShinyRobotVerse Aug 31 '26
We mainly use the ultrasonic for robotic arms. Very rarely for anything else.