BACK-UP PLAN – ISSUE NO. 137

Back-Up Plan Just before Christmas I woke early and followed my normal Saturday routine: making coffee, walking the dog, etc. However that morning I was greeted by a puddle of water in front of the frig. As you might imagine panic set in... what are we going to do with the food?! Fortunately I was quickly relieved to remember our back-up refrigerator was nearly empty. As we were moving items and throwing away the inevitable out-of-date jam, I was grateful we had a back-up. As often happens to me, I started to think about work and how such an experience impacts our customers. In Central Sterile there are many machines that when broken illicit a similar panic. One such machine might be a heat sealer for your peel pouches. The good news is Healthmark has created a solution: Loaner machines while you wait for your heat sealer to be fixed. Keep in mind that often early diagnosis can help minimize these situations. One method of early detection is to test the quality of your seals with Healthmark Daily Seal Checks. ISO 11607 recommends the routing monitoring of seal quality. The Daily Seal Check sheets do just that. They provide document proof of the quality of your sealing device by providing a challenge analogous to the heating sealing of your pouches. Having a back-up plan is always helpful to manage whether it's Christmas dinner or sealing your sterilization pouches.