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How a 390-Bed Independent Hospital Resolved a Critical Backlog, Restored Compliance, and Established the Foundation for Long-Term Success
As a result, a 390-bed independent hospital in the Midwest had to absorb a significant increase in case volume while managing the transfer of capital equipment from the closed facility into storage, without time to triage, organize, or deploy it.
Staff turnover accelerated. Trays piled up. By the time the situation became a formal project, the department was managing an average of nearly 400 trays down per day, with instruments missing, audits incomplete, and compliance documentation lagging.
Surgical Solutions was engaged to provide embedded support, focused initially on tray reduction, instrument reconciliation, and process stabilization. The engagement earned sufficient trust that the hospital invited Surgical Solutions to assume full management of endoscopy and sterile processing at the main hospital, as well as supporting endoscopy at the ambulatory surgery center.
Instruments were reconciled and trays cleared for use. Compliance gaps that had been accumulating across both departments were systematically closed. Instrument stacking was significantly reduced across decontamination and prep areas, with a corresponding decline in damaged instrumentation evidenced by repair bin volume.
The team that absorbed the departure of eight contingent workers and still drove these results was not doing a different version of the same work. The capability was different. For perioperative leaders managing the aftermath of a closure, a consolidation, or a volume increase that has outpaced departmental infrastructure, that distinction is the starting point.
With the nearby hospital closing, leadership faced an operational cascade with limited runway. Case volume increased. Capital equipment arrived from the closed site in quantity without the infrastructure to absorb it. The assembly room became both a workspace and emergency storage.
The workforce challenge compounded the operational one. Though a significant portion of the sterile processing team had come from the sister facility, turnover continued. The hospital was relying heavily on contingent labor to maintain throughput, which added cost and variability without being able to address the structural gaps underneath. When the engagement began, the hospital’s eight contingent labor contracts were canceled and the Surgical Solutions team absorbed that coverage reduction without a corresponding decrease in case volume or backlog pressure.
Surgical Solutions worked alongside hospital leadership to establish structure before attempting transformation. The engagement began with embedded operational support and expanded in scope as results demonstrated what was possible.
The risks were clear and accumulating:
Certified technicians were placed to manage trays, closing the gap that had allowed backlogs to compound. Daily leadership huddles, tray tracers, and productivity monitoring logs created the accountability infrastructure the department had been missing. Average trays down moved from near 500 at peak to a stable range within the initial engagement period.
The assembly room was reorganized around back-up instrumentation carts, including purpose-built urology and neuro carts, replacing an ad hoc storage arrangement with structured, accessible inventory by category. Alongside the reconciliation work, nine new instrument sets were built from the ground up, expanding available tray inventory beyond what the transfer of equipment from the closed facility had depleted. Vendor management controls were reinforced to support efficiency and accountability. Across 25 trays, 157 missing instruments were identified and corrected. 295 instrument trays were audited and passed.
A formal risk assessment documented deficiencies in both departments. Sterilizer preventive maintenance records in SPD were brought current. In Endoscopy, a defined decontamination workflow was established in alignment with AAMI ST91 guidelines, and clinical engineering documentation was corrected for filter inspection per OEM requirements. Infection Prevention was engaged as an ongoing participant in department walkthroughs, converting a one-time remediation into a sustained accountability structure. Additional training was provided at no cost to the hospital.
The embedded team did not limit its scope to SPD. Significant time was invested building direct relationships with OR leads, nursing staff, and surgeons, communicating in clinical terms, addressing equipment concerns in real time, and establishing a credible presence on the procedural side of the operation.
Through reduced repair volume and improved vendor contract performance, hospitals continue to benefit from measurable financial gains year after year.
Regular coordination between sterile processing and clinical teams keeps accountability in place long after the initial engagement closes.
Ongoing assessment of reprocessing, clinical flow, and department handoffs ensures efficiency gains compound over time rather than erode.
Real-time visibility into instrument and scope inventory ensures the right equipment is available at the right time, reducing delays caused by missing, damaged, or untracked assets.
Are you ready to improve efficiency at your hospital? Reach out to Surgical Solutions and we’ll work as your key collaborator to improve not only efficiency, but a better work environment with improved processes and productivity.
