Welcome to the new and improved Zoo News – Atherton’s bi-monthly newsletter for our community all over Australia. Alongside interviews with CSSD operators, Engineers, Nurses, Techs and Procurement Managers from hospitals, labs, veterinary and other healthcare centres Zoo News also aims to bring you information about interesting upcoming events locally and nationally and useful tips and information on the Atherton range from our Customer Service Team.
Wendy Bradock (pictured with Sam) is the CSSD manager at Calvary Adelaide Hospital. Having worked in the industry for 22 years, and at multiple sites we ask her about her experiences.
Describe your role, how long have you been working in this role and at this location?
Started at Calvary Wakefield hospital/ Calvary Adelaide hospital as CSSD supervisor then worked up to be an educator coordinator to acting manager over the course of 3.6 years
How do you work with/what is your connection with sterilisation products, which of Atherton’s products do you use?
At CAH we have Atherton washers and sterilisers steam /low temp/ drying cabinet/ heat sealers plus consumables that are all Atherton. All of these are a part of the cycle of preparing for sterilisation for the use on patients to achieve a positive outcome.
How do you describe your job to friends and family?
The most important job for us in CSSD is to never get seen by the patient. We in CSSD are a silent advocate of surgical instrument safety for the use on the patient by the surgeon
What is the most challenging part of your job?
Each day can bring many types of challenges from priority cases to lost time where items may be misplaced.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
Working within a team that holds the same ideal of positive outcomes for the patient.
What is your favourite travel spot?
Kuitpo forest (in the hills of Adelaide) for the peace and quiet.
What are your top three life highlights?
Spawning children! Opportunity to work in multiple CSSD’s and getting to experience different techniques. Being grateful to wake up each morning.
What does true leadership mean to you?
Having a strong character, being patient, having lots of drive and remaining focused.
In this section of the newsletter, we hope to address some of the more common questions that we are asked about the sterilizers or our other products in Customer Service.
Sometimes you may come across issues with your sterilizers and this can be frustrating when you are busy so there are some things that you can do for common small problems.
This time around we will start with “Generator fault.” As straightforward as it sounds the best thing you can do first is simply turn the unit off and then back on – most times will get the unit running again (I know! I sound like an IT Genius – but it works).
The second most common issue that that is likely to cause this fault warning is the water supply. If you check there may be maintenance work going on at your site and the water may be temporarily off – this will also bring up a Generator Fault on the machine.
If these fixes don’t work then give our Service Department a call on 1300 580 870 and we will be happy to help you from there.
Deb
Service Department
The latest events in the industry
