LisaSafe underpins IC protocols

Smilecare Dental in Adelaide is one of the first practices in Australia to use the latest W&H LisaSafe traceability system to support its latest infection control protocol.

Smilecare Clinical Director, Alicia Hampton, said the W&H LisaSafe was allowing Smilecare to easily track sterile instruments through the surgery and link each instrument with the patient and sterilization cycle.

The LisaSafe is connected directly to a Lisa 500 sterilizer and automatically prints out adhesive labels for each load including information such as dentist's name, date and type of cycle as well as a barcode. The labels are then attached to the sterile pouches as they are unloaded.

The practice uses Oasis practice management software which includes its own facility to track instruments and print barcodes. In this case however, the barcodes generated by the LisaSafe are use instead. At the beginning of each procedure, the Dentist, Hygienist or Assistant simply scans the barcode from each label directly into the Oasis software patient record to capture information on the sterilization cycle.

The operator also peels the label off the pouch when it is opened and attaches it to the day sheet alongside each patient's name as a physical backup.

Ms Hampton said the LisaSafe had "definitive advantages" over other instrument tracking systems and was part of a complete revamp of the clinic and its procedures. For starters, the LisaSafe printer is located immediately alongside the sterilizer for convenience and occupies very little bench space.

The unique label codes can be either transcribed into the physical or electronic patient record at the time of using the instruments, or it can be scanned into a computer using a standard barcode reader.

One of the most important features of the LisaSafe, however, is its failsafe programming which only allows it to print a label if a sterilization cycle has been satisfactorily completed - so only sterile instrument pouches can be labelled as such.

"The LisaSafe supports our new infection control protocol, where for the first time we can actually trace back each instrument to a patient, procedure and sterilization cycle.

"In the past we would have to access the memory card of the sterilizer and there was no sure way of linking the cycle with the load or patient.

"Although we have always sterilized all our instruments, the LisaSafe system provides proof that this has occurred and that all instruments were properly sterilized each and every time," Ms Hampton said.

Credit is also due to the team at Software of Excellence who updated the latest release of Oasis to allow it to accept LisaSafe's unique 13 character code.