W&H Headquarters - EN
Reprocessing Areas - from design to reality
Christian Stempf (W&H Hygiene Advisor) comes from the European dental industry. He has been involved in infection prevention for 25 years, with focus on reprocessing reusable medical instruments, in particular sterilization and design of reprocessing areas. He is a member of the European (CEN-TC102) normalization committee participating to two working groups i.e. bench top sterilizers and washer disinfectors. Mr. Stempf has gathered valuable rational knowledge through his daily activities and contacts with hygiene professionals throughout the world. He offers vendor independent lectures for healthcare professionals as well as comprehensive courses for dental assistants worldwide.
W&H Hygiene Advisor: consulting, lectures and courses
Besides offering lectures and courses to W&H business partners and healthcare professionals, Christian Stempf also supports them with designing reprocessing areas. He usually receives the floor plan of new or existing buildings and proposes a rational design of the area, taking into account all constraints such as the size, location, doors, ventilation and especially the type of devices the customer is currently using or is planning to acquire.
(W&H Hygiene Advisor)
Case Report: The Dome MedDental Clinic Dubai
Making the reprocessing area more visible
In February 2015, Christian Stempf was into contact with Dr. Maria Aleksashina and her husband Philippe Aguilar at the AEEDC in Dubai. In detailed consultations Mr. Stempf highlighted the importance of infection prevention and hygiene for patients and staff and explained the basic principles of reprocessing dental instruments. In his design proposal he not only took care about all “Fundamental principles in designing reprocessing areas”, but also stressed the advantages of visible reprocessing areas which let patients see and understand up front that their health and safety is important at the clinic.
Designing proposal & final design of the reprocessing area
Fundamental Principles
- Instruments must travel in one direction from the dirty zone towards the clean zone. Airflow should be designed to prevent air from the dirty zone being forced into the clean zone.
- Form follows function: The configuration of each part of the room follows the reprocessing steps including buffer spaces after cleaning, packaging and sterilization.
- Ready for use: After being labeled, the processed instruments are stored in double glass door cabinets.
Cleanliness and safety
After an intensive construction phase, the practice from Dr Aleksashina was opened in October 2015. The design of the reprocessing area proposed by Christian Stempf was put into reality 1:1. The optimal and open design as well as the perfect arrangement of the reprocessing equipment not only enables the practice team to work efficiently, but also demonstrates the patients that the issue of hygiene is taken very seriously. The professional design of the reprocessing area also convinced the DHA (Dubai Health Authority). During an audit the practice could fulfill all legal requirements and the inspector emphasized that he has never seen anything like this. Thanks to this smooth procedure of the whole inspection the topic of hygiene is a very important flagship of the dental practice and gives patients the feeling of cleanliness and safety.
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