ConCensis

Locking Down Your Data: Censis Technologies Pioneers with HITRUST Cybersecurity Certification

How does achieving a HITRUST cybersecurity certification redefine the security posture and customer trust for companies like Censis Technologies and their clients? In this insightful episode of the ConCensis podcast, host Vanessa Cavanaugh engages with Brandi Guest , a Security Operations Engineer at Censis, and Myles Templin , an Associate Manager at A-LIGN , delving into the rigorous journey and significant impact of obtaining a HITRUST cybersecurity certification. “We wanted [the HITRUST cert...

Bay Pines VA Triumphs with 2023 Ron Hesch Award for Healthcare Innovation and Excellence in Sterile Processing and Patient Care

Bay Pines VA Healthcare System has emerged as a beacon of healthcare innovation, particularly in the realm of sterile processing, setting new benchmarks in healthcare efficiency and patient safety. Their journey, marked by significant achievements and culminating in the prestigious 2023 Ron Hesch Award, reflects a deep commitment to advancing healthcare practices. In an industry continually reshaped by challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic, Bay Pines stands out for its exceptional approach to op...

Label it All: Kem Medical is Made for Sterile Processing

This episode of the ConCensis podcast looks into the critical world of sterile processing with CtUC 2023 platinum sponsor Kem Medical Products Corp . Host Vanessa Cavanaugh and guest Mark Ebenstein , VP of Products and Services at Kem Medical, discuss the tools and strategies that ensure safety in healthcare environments. Together, they explore Kem Medical’s integral contributions to sterile processing and Ebenstein’s journey within the industry. The conversation reveals Kem Medical’s comprehens...

CtUC 2023 Change Maker Award Winner Alina Easley Shapes a Future Beyond the Conventional in Surgical Instrument Management

When it comes to handling change, look no further than Censis’ CtUC 2023 Change Maker Award winner Alina Easley for advice. With its rapidly evolving technological advancements, the healthcare sector aims to streamline operations and improve patient care. This transformation often requires a marriage of technical skills and change management to ensure that healthcare professionals are adept at using new tools while being open to altering traditional work processes. Alina Easley, the recent recip...

Instrument Management Standardization in Multiple Facilities Shouldn't Require a Paper Trail

Creating an instrument management standardization program for multiple facilities shouldn’t be a hassle and shouldn’t require mountains of physical paperwork. In today’s digital age, reliance on paper processes in healthcare institutions is outdated and wasteful. According to recent data, American healthcare institutions waste more than five million tons of paper annually . This environmental degradation results in significant energy waste and increased costs. As healthcare institutions strive t...

The Upcoming Censis Technologies Users Conference: It’s Time to Get Connected Again

Despite its rapid technological advancements, the Sterile Processing industry faces a challenge: professionals often feel disconnected. The upcoming Censis Technologies Users Conference (CtUC) Connect 2023, scheduled from September 10-12 at the Omni Nashville Hotel, seeks to address this issue. A recent survey highlighted that 80% of professionals believe in-person conferences, like CtUC 2023, are essential for building meaningful connections and staying updated on industry best practices. The C...

The Dream Team: Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining Amazing Staff in SPD

With the world continuing to grapple with the aftermath of COVID-19, healthcare facilities are finding it harder than ever to recruit and retain qualified staff. The high cost of living, economic uncertainty, and an increasingly competitive job market have created a perfect storm, leading to a whopping 77 percent of employers struggling to fill positions, according to a Manpower Talent survey. Nearly every industry is experiencing recruitment challenges, even healthcare, which is ultimately lead...

Censis Technologies, PowerPanel - Quality vs. Productivity, the Sterile Processing Battle Royale(audio)

AAMI ST:91 – A Review of the New Standards and Discussion on Enhanced Compliance

Preventing HAIs (healthcare-acquired infections) is critical in sterilization and quality control processing. Maintaining AAMI ST-91 guidelines ensures adherence to the latest sterilization and quality control methods for endoscopes. And with over 51.4 million inpatient surgeries performed in the U.S. each year, keeping up-to-date guidelines for AAMI ST-91 is paramount. How do the updated AAMI ST-91 guidelines improve endoscope reprocessing and enhance compliance? In this ConCensis episode broug...

Using Quality Data for Education and Training

Sterile processing departments are persistently understaffed with high turnover which leads to higher defect rates. These defects have serious impacts on patient safety and are the third leading cause of operating room delays. So how can SPD leadership get actionable data they need to make impactful changes that will significantly improve sterile processing outcomes and help lower defects? On today’s episode of the ConCensis Podcast, host Gabrielle Bejarano speaks with Stewart Pillow, Senior Pro...

Go Paperless: Moving from a Manual to Electronic Tracking System

Many medical instruments are reusable, which has made tracking them through the sterilization process very important. These instruments often require inspection, maintenance, and sterilization to ensure maximum patient safety. Some healthcare facilities still track their instruments with paper and pen, exposing them to human error, credibility, time-consuming recalls, and boxes of archives that need to be stored. However, these challenges can be solved by implementing an electronic tracking syst...

Overcoming Challenges in Perioperative Services and SPD Management: Insights from Brian Dawson of CommonSpirit Health

The healthcare sector suffered a major setback due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Providing high-quality services to patients is a priority. However, for healthcare facilities to run properly, managers or directors must make operational and strategic decisions, especially in the perioperative setting. Efficient operating room (OR) management involves maintaining equilibrium between optimal OR capacity, allocation of ORs to surgeons, assignment of staff, ordering of materials, and reliable scheduling ...

Part 3: State of the Union for Sterile Processing and Technology

Creating Sterile Processing Department schedules that make the most of a staff’s time requires a complete understanding and visibility of the demands of a particular healthcare facility. And to gain that big picture, a department needs data and lots of it. Still, more than that, a Sterile Processing Department needs a platform solution that provides reporting in an innovative and actionable way. What’s the next generation of technology available to make SPD scheduling demands less challenging? T...

Part 2: State of the Union for Sterile Processing and Technology

There are an estimated 51.4 million inpatient surgeries performed in the U.S. on an annual basis. That’s a lot of reusable instruments that require sterile processing. It’s no wonder Sterile Processing Departments (SPDs) have their hands full. Labor shortages, mainly since the pandemic, put tremendous strain on already taxed SPDs. Censis creates solutions to give SPD departments an edge in streamlined efficiency and data-driven analysis to provide actionable insights. Their latest solution, Cens...

Part 1: State of the Union for Sterile Processing and Technology

Many areas of healthcare struggle with staffing issues, requiring personnel to do more with fewer resources. Sterile processing departments are not immune to these issues. Today, increased responsibilities and difficulty finding and retaining qualified employees to manage these critical tasks are challenging to solve. Even with data tracking tools and platforms, making sense of all that collected data to take actionable steps to create efficiencies can take time and effort. So, what can sterile ...

Using Efficiency Tasks and Maintenance Logs to Optimize SPD Operations

There are many details that go into prepping an OR and all the instruments necessary for safe and sterile surgeries. Surgical technicians must keep detailed records of these tasks to ensure the room is ready for surgery. Using EFT, or efficiency tasks, shifts maintenance into the 21st century. Moving away from handwritten paper logs and going digital, SPDs are able to keep strict records and quickly check references when necessary. On this episode, Gabrielle Bejarano hosts Kelly Swails, Director...

Stop Digging for Data: Uncover Productivity Issues and Opportunities in Minutes with Seamus Johnson and Barry Phetteplace

Sterile Processing Departments (SPDs), as with all other industries in healthcare, are struggling with supply chain concerns, a lack of steady commitment from staff, and a workforce shortage. Additionally, SPDs have long dealt with issues in staffing shortages, which even extends to how facilities maximize their spaces. Seamus Johnson, Senior Director of Application Development at Censis Technologies, and Barry Phetteplace, Chief Technology Officer at Censis Technologies, spoke with Tyler Kern a...

Censis Technology Users Conference (CTUC) with Gabrielle Bejarano

This year, the theme for the Censis Technologies Users Conference (CTUC), is the “Power of Purpose.” ConCensis Host Gabrielle Bejarano was joined by the following from Censis to dive into the purpose of the conference and this year’s theme: President Ankush Kaul, Allison Flood, VP, Customer Success & Service, Barry Phetteplace, Chief Technology Officer, and Seamus Johnson, Senior Director of Application Development. Kaul explained that the conference became a formality due to customer feedba...

Censis Technology Users Conference (CTUC) with Gabrielle Bejarano

This year, the theme for the Censis Technologies Users Conference (CTUC), is the “Power of Purpose.” ConCensis Host Gabrielle Bejarano was joined by the following from Censis to dive into the purpose of the conference and this year’s theme: President Ankush Kaul, Allison Flood, VP, Customer Success & Service, Barry Phetteplace, Chief Technology Officer, and Seamus Johnson, Senior Director of Application Development. Kaul explained that the conference became a formality due to customer feedba...

How to Bring Your Scope Management Process Into the 21st Century with Jacob Long and Hannah Shipp

Endoscopes are complex surgical assets made with various intricate parts depending on their use. Processing includes sterilizing, cleaning, transporting, and storing these tools. All of this requires intense asset management. To discuss moving scope process into the technological age, host Tyler Kern invited Jacob Long, Director - Sales Engineering, and Hannah Shipp, Product Owner - Censis to the podcast. “You see a lot of complexity and variations in the scopes out there. It’s a diverse surgica...

The Future of Sterile Processing with Barry Phetteplace and Susan Isaac

Everything begins with the customer journey to create the innovations that will shape the future of sterile processing. Barry Phetteplace, Chief Technology Officer at Censis, and Susan Isaac, Product Director at Censis, shared the strategy that guides their teams in developing advanced sterile processing solutions. Isaac said Censis tackles a problem by examining the customer process and finding out what they cannot do today or would like to do better. “Because all innovation, no matter how cool...

ConCensis | Sterile Processing Pillars

There’s never been a greater need for hospitals and other healthcare operations to have full visibility into their assets and how they’re being used in operating room settings and beyond. In a healthcare landscape that’s seen most healthcare operations adopt some form of electronic health records (EHR) solution, Censis’ solutions can integrate with those capabilities and provide a more intuitive, seamless experience in ensuring that visibility. To discuss the benefits of Censis solutions like Ce...

ConCensis | The Lifecycle of a Container

On this episode of the podcast, host Tyler Kern talked with Kelly Swails, Director of Clinical Services for Censis Technologies, the industry leader in surgical instrument management systems, offering advanced, web-based software systems. Kern and Swails talked about the lifecycle of a container and the importance of tracking during the process. Today, we’re talking about documenting the lifecycle of a container. As a clinical educator, Swails helps companies optimize their use of CensiTrac Inst...

ConCensis | The Life of a Scope

Sam Harrison, Senior Clinical Educator at Censis Technologies, provided Tyler Kern with an education in endoscopy when he guided him through the lifecycle of a scope and how Censis technologies’ ScopeTrac and CensiTrac play a vital role in the process. Scopes first go through a deamination process before they enter the OR. CensiTrac then captures the cleaning and reprocessing procedures. “When the tech checks that scope into the scope processing module, the instructions for use are displayed,” H...

Do You Know Where Your Instruments Are? How Surgical Instrument Marking Can Improve Your Perioperative feat. Bill Camargo and Jennifer Bingaman

Ahead of any surgical procedure or operation is the preparation of surgical instruments. In the latest episode of the podcast “ConCensis,” host Tyler Kern discussed the ins and outs of how Censis utilizes its software to facilitate the use of surgical instruments throughout the full perioperative loop by putting marks on each individual instrument. He spoke with Bill Camargo, Manager of Marking Services, and Jennifer Bingaman, Director of Business Services, on how Censis gets it right. According...

Implementation Strategy: What Does a Successful Surgical Instrument Management System Implementation Look Like?

Technology plays a central role in every aspect of medical advancement — even in the surgical asset management field. On an episode of ConCensis host, Tyler Kern was joined by Theresa Cole, a Sterile Processing Manager at Northern Nevada Sierra Hospital, and Jason Blake, a project manager with Censis Technologies – the company behind CensiTrac, a system being used to manage all things surgical instrument management. When health centers and facilities look to adopt a new system, there are several...

The Loaner Tray Conundrum - How to Accurately Track Loaner Trays Throughout Your Department

Susie Martin, Project Manager with Professional Services at Censis Technologies, Inc., and Carrie Miller, Perioperative Enterprise Coordinator at The Ohio State University, spoke with ConCensis about best practices for loaner tray management. Miller said that in the case of Ohio State University’s healthcare network, Censis’ LoanerLink is a critical solution for efficient and safe loaner tray management. “We have five locations and a large vendor influx at our two main locations,” Miller said. “...

Tracking to Infinity and Beyond with an Instrument Tracking System, feat. Jacob Long & Seamus Johnson

Instruments often disappear, and the idea behind tracking is use barcodes and scan trays so instruments are traceable. “Being able to have almost like a fingerprint for each one of these instruments and then like Seamus mentioned using that in conjunction with like a computer and a scanner it really helps all of these technicians and nurses regardless of what stage they’re in have that level of visibility,” stated Long. Methods of tracking include electrochemical and laser. Data generated includ...

Love at First Assessment - Using Utilization Assessments to Uncover Blind Spots in Your Sterile Processing Department, feat. Cody Pregler

CensiTrac is a powerful tool for any medical organization, and Censis wants to make sure organizations get the most from it, which is why they conduct onsite utilization assessments. Cody Pregler, Clinical Educator for Censis, spoke with Tyler Kern on the multitude of ways Censis maximizes efficiencies with advanced clinical support through their ServicePlus model. What exactly does a utilization assessment report entail? “A utilization assessment report is where we come onsite, and we look at e...

Love at First Assessment - Using Utilization Assessments to Uncover Blind Spots in Your Sterile Processing Department feat. Cody Pregler

CensiTrac is a powerful tool for any medical organization, and Censis wants to make sure organizations get the most from it, which is why they conduct onsite utilization assessments. Cody Pregler, Clinical Educator for Censis, spoke with Tyler Kern on the multitude of ways Censis maximizes efficiencies with advanced clinical support through their ServicePlus model. Interested in learning more about Censis Technologies' surgical asset management platform? Visit Censis.com ....