Processing custom trays requires six primary steps:
First, you should determine your needs as regard surgical trays. What kind of trays are necessary, and what kind of unique items would you like included in them? How many will you need, and will you have more than one series to maintain operations should the unthinkable happen? Once you’ve properly configured your needs, then it’s time to commission an order.
A tray that hasn’t been sterilized is a tray that you cannot use. This is an integral component of the custom tray. Custom trays are often sterilized through several different procedures. Which is used for your specific custom trays may depend on the organization from whom you commission their development. It makes sense to order custom trays from a group whose methods you find suitable to your practice. Most will be transparent in this area, so feel free to ask how their sterilization procedures work.
Packing for custom trays is integral to their successful deployment. You’re ordering trays that won’t just travel from the place where they were put together and sterilized, they’ll have to remain sterile until it’s time to use them. This means they must be optimized for storage such that they can stand to be idle for long periods of time. When you choose a custom tray provider, you should be sure that they provide top-tier packaging. Such packaging must additionally match the idiosyncrasies of a given tray. A procedural pack for spinal work will be different than that used in orthodontia; but both custom trays need to be rugged and able to remain clean with storage.
Find an open room where trays can be stored without being too near the walls or the ceiling. Walls are going to have varying microbial and insect life near them, the ceiling may leak. Even in secure environments, both areas are weak points to a room’s sterility. Consider tray idiosyncrasies as well. There are certain trays that cannot be stacked one atop the other, as they’ll end up compromising each other’s sterility. The last thing to consider is how accessible said packages are. You’re going to need to monitor them before they go to surgery.
Between microorganisms, insects, and other life too small for the eye to readily detect, there are a ubiquity of compromising factors which could inhibit your custom trays. Leaks, as mentioned previously, may come from the ceiling. If you can devise a covering to protect custom trays against this, it’s certainly recommendable. But even if you have the perfect storage environment, you’re going to encounter individual changes. Maybe some equipment was being moved and knocked through the storage door, contaminating the trays. Anything could happen, so be sure you monitor the trays you’ve purchased very closely.
After trays have been used, they must be completely disposed of; and in a way that’s preferably not harmful to the environment. Hazardous materials must be handled accordingly; especially as many of them will involve organic contaminants.
Once you’ve figured out how many custom trays you will need, you’re going to want a second tier of them in storage in case you over-reach said need. Economic crisis can diminish patients, economic stimulus can multiply them, and disaster can exponentially increase them. Three tiers of trays is recommendable for the most trustworthy stability in operations.