Central Sterile Services Department (CSSD) are departments or units within hospitals or other healthcare institutions that are responsible for the cleaning, sterilization, and distribution of medical equipment and instruments used in healthcare. They ensure that equipment is properly cleaned and sterilized before being reused, which helps prevent the spread of infectious diseases. In addition, they also manage inventory of equipment and instruments, ensuring healthcare professionals have what they need when they need it.
How important is CSSD to hospitals and clinics?
It is in this unit that everything from the inspection of materials (instruments, surgical clothes and others) to their release takes place.
The materials go through basically 6 different processes:
- inspection.
- cleaning/disinfection.
- preparation.
- packaging.
- sterilization, commonly by moist heat, using an autoclave.
- storage until release to other sectors.
During the processes, the crossing of dirty materials with already clean materials is not allowed, as well as the flow of workers assigned to each area. For this, the creation of barriers that isolate each environment is essential.
