Water Treatment for Central Sterile Services Department (CSSD) with Aquacure

The Central Sterile Services Department (CSSD) is a crucial part of Australia’s hospitals and health service organisations (HSOs). The CSSD is responsible for reprocessing of reusable medical devices in health service organisations to the new Australian Standard (AS/NZS 4187:2014). Water quality is a key consideration when meeting the new Standard.

The Australian Standard for reprocessing of reusable medical devices in health service organisations was updated with new requirements in 2014.

The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare expects organisations to comply with requirements in relevant national or international standards for monitoring water quality. You can view the Commission’s latest NSQHS Standards Advisory No. AS18/07 here. It is mandatory for approved accrediting agencies to implement this Advisory.

Aquacure can assist your HSO to meet recommended CSSD requirements with a trusted outcome grounded in experience and built with technical excellence.

Aquacure has extensive experience with hospitals and other HSOs throughout Queensland, where we have provided comprehensive water treatment solutions. Our water treatment experts are able to provide hospitals with the solutions they need to ensure better patient care.

Obstacles to Compliance

There are many obstacles to meeting the new Standard, including costs, the impact on surgery and the timeframe.

It may be necessary to shut down the CSSD during upgrade works. However, shutting down the CSSD has ramifications for the provision of surgery.

While some hospitals have chosen to time construction works during relatively quiet periods, and are able to suspend surgery for the duration of the upgrade project, this won’t be possible for everyone.

That means other solutions are needed, such as off-site surgical instrument reprocessing at a neighbouring facility, or installation of a temporary external solution on site, which could include installing a complete mobile or modular CSSD.

Installation time-frames can be especially challenging in the current environment. Fortunately, Aquacure is less affected by supply chain issues than most companies because we design and build our specialist CSSD water treatment plants in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Bespoke design and flexible installation also means we can tailor solutions to meet challenging sites.

Learn More

You can read more about understanding water treatment and requirements for the central sterile supply department (CSSD), and also some options for transitioning to compliance including the use of a mobile or modular CSSD in this article published in Healthcare Spaces.

Please don’t hesitate to contact our team to discuss the requirements at your facility further – we’re here to help.