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Recovery of Surgical Equipment Sterile Processing During a Floodwater Boil Advisory

Part of: Floods collection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 August 2017

Stephen Shelton Open the ORCID record for Stephen Shelton [Opens in a new window] ,
Jay Hamm ,
Bankole Olatosi  and
R. Ory Johnson
Stephen Shelton*
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency Medicine, Palmetto Health Richland, Columbia, South Carolina
Jay Hamm
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency Medicine, Palmetto Health Richland, Columbia, South Carolina
Bankole Olatosi
Affiliation:
Palmetto Health Richland, Columbia, South Carolina
R. Ory Johnson
Affiliation:
Department of Health Services Policy & Management, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to Stephen Shelton, Medical Director of Emergency Preparedness, Department of Emergency Medicine, Palmetto Health Richland, 14 Medical Park, Suite 350, Columbia, SC 29203 (e-mail: Stephen.Shelton@PalmettoHealth.org).
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Abstract

Excessive rainfall and dam failures resulted in floodwater contaminating our public water supply. The endotoxin risk in the contaminated water created challenges in recovery of sterile processing for our surgical equipment. Recovery plans should include a potable water source and a method to connect it to the required location. We share our solution of plumbing our sterile processing equipment to tanker-transported potable water sources. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2018; 12: 415–418)

Keywords

endotoxinfloodequipment sterilization
Type
Report from the Field
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 12 , Issue 3 , June 2018 , pp. 415 - 418
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc. 2017 

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