The central sterile services department (CSSD), also called sterile processing
department (SPD), sterile processing, central supply department (CSD), or central supply, is an
integrated place in hospitals and other health care facilities that performs sterilization and other
actions on medical devices, equipment and consumables; for subsequent use by health workers in
the operating theatre of the hospital and also for other aseptic procedures, e.g. catheterization,
wound stitching and bandaging in a medical, surgical, maternity or paediatric ward.
The operations of a sterile services department usually consist of the cleaning, disinfection,
and sterilization of reusable medical equipment. Reusable medical equipment, or RME, can
consist of any medical equipment from stainless steel surgical instrumentation, to IV pumps and
crash carts. RME is separated into three classes: non-critical, semi-critical, and critical, with each
class requiring a minimum level of reprocessing.
Non-critical items, such as IV poles and pumps, require a minimum of intermediate level
disinfection which can be accomplished with most hospital disinfectants.
Semi-critical items are items that are expected to have contact with what an intact mucous
membrane, and normally consists of endoscopes like those used in colonoscopies. These items
require high level disinfectants such as glutaraldehyde solution, peracetic acid, or hydrogen
peroxide plasma[2].
Critical items, which include any instrument which will be introduced into a patient blood stream
or in a normally sterile area of the body, require sterilization.
Sterilization methods in use
A sterile processing technician is someone who cleans and sterilizes used surgical instruments and
other medical supplies so that they can be safely redistributed and reused on future patients. This
work is usually centralized in a special department of the medical facility.
Job titles include the following:
Sterile processing and distribution technician (SPD tech or CPD tech)
Central sterile supply technician (CSS tech)
Central processing technician (CPT)
Central service technician (CST)
Certified Sterile Science Technician (CSST)
Sterile Science Associate(SSA)- Degree.
Sterile Scientist (SS)- Degree.
Master of Sterile Sciences (MSS)- Degree.
Departments
Sterile processing departments are typically divided into four major areas to accomplish the
functions of decontamination, assembly and sterile processing, sterile storage, and distribution.
Decontamination
Decontaminating used surgical instruments and other medical devices
Operating and maintaining special decontamination equipment like automatic washers
Inspecting decontaminated items to make sure they are clean
Assembly
Organizing clean items and packaging them into appropriate instrument trays and sets
Sterilization and storage
Sterilizing assembled trays of instruments
Precisely operating and monitoring special sterilization equipment like autoclaves
Keeping detailed records of items that have been cleaned, sterilized, and stored
Distribution
Stocking crash carts
Organizing sterilized medical supplies
Ensuring that sterile supplies don’t become outdated / preventing event related sterility
issues
Delivering sterile supplies where they are needed and picking up dirty ones
