City of Hope healthcare leaders have released a new white paper examining how hospitals can maintain surgical operations during simultaneous sterile processing department (SPD) failures caused by water quality issues, infrastructure damage and planned maintenance.
Authored by Michael Ahmad, system director of biomedical engineering, and Cera Salamone, director of perioperative services, the paper details a real-world incident in which multiple SPD disruptions occurred at once, creating significant operational and patient safety challenges.
Titled “Managing Concurrent Sterile Processing Department Failures Due to Water Quality Issues, Planned Maintenance, and Infrastructure Flooding,” the white paper explores how a healthcare system responded when its primary SPD was disabled by flooding, a secondary SPD experienced water contamination issues and a third facility was offline for refurbishment.
“This event underscores how vulnerable sterile processing operations can be when multiple failures occur simultaneously,” Ahmad said. “Our goal in publishing this paper is to help other health systems strengthen preparedness and ensure continuity of care under extreme conditions.”
The incident forced immediate removal of surgical instruments, increased pressure on perioperative teams and required activation of an executive command structure to prevent surgical delays. Despite these challenges, coordinated leadership, external partnerships and contingency sterilization plans helped maintain surgical services.
Key findings from the white paper include:
- Infrastructure vulnerabilities: Multiple SPDs alone do not guarantee redundancy without coordinated system-wide contingency planning.
- Water quality risks: Inadequate monitoring can lead to contamination that renders instruments unsafe for use.
- Operational strain: Simultaneous failures significantly increase labor demands, costs and risk of surgical disruption.
The authors also outline actionable recommendations for healthcare systems, including implementing real-time water quality monitoring, strengthening redundancy planning, improving crisis training and formalizing external support agreements.
Salamone emphasized the importance of preparedness across departments: “Strong communication, proactive planning and cross-functional coordination are essential to maintaining patient safety when unexpected disruptions occur.”
The white paper concludes that with enhanced monitoring systems, robust contingency planning and coordinated response strategies, hospitals can significantly reduce risk and maintain uninterrupted sterile processing capacity during emergencies.
