Compiled by the Decontamination Professional Expert Communication Forum
It has been acknowledged for some time that there is no single source of information providing an overview of medical device decontamination. There are many standards and guidance documents which describe a variety of decontamination processes and the operation and testing requirements of related equipment, but no single document that provides an introduction to the principles of medical device decontamination. The Microbiological Advisory Committee (MAC) published a document containing similar information many years ago which was archived.
As a consequence of this void, a subgroup of the Decontamination Professional Experts Communication Forum (DPECF) was established, to produce a document containing an introduction to the principles of medical device decontamination; effectively a single source of information for those in healthcare wishing to gain an appreciation of this subject, and to guide the practitioner to further reading. This document is not intended to duplicate or replace the many detailed publications it cites and from which it draws information. The intention of developing the content is to provide basic information on the principles of reusable medical device decontamination.
The content has been developed by a small group of people representing their professional bodies, identified in the acknowledgments below, and other expert contributors in the field of decontamination. The content of this document does not necessarily represent the views of the professional bodies who have supported its production. It is the intention to publish an electronic version only at this time, which will be hosted on the Central Sterilising Club website, with links to this from other professional body websites, thereby having only one master copy making version control easier.
The approach to presenting the content has been to keep text to a minimum, using images, pictures, tables, algorithms and flow charts to support easy reading and referencing.
Medical device innovations are also included, together with suggestions on how to undertake an investigation where decontamination failure is suspected. It is intended to include questions to support determining root cause for decontamination problems, failures or identified risks.
