What does a non-sterile sample mean?
• Approximately 40% of the practices we monitor have a non-sterile sample sometime throughout the year and this is always a cause for concern; however, roughly 70% of the non-sterile samples are single, isolated events. These are nearly always attributable to human error such as overloading the sterilizer or cutting the time short or simply forgetting to put the strip through a sterilization cycle and then sending it to us — yes, this does happen. Regardless, a single non-sterile sample is a good time to remind the staff that sterilization is critical to the practice and that the testing procedure is rigorous. • If we see two consecutive non-sterile samples, we recommend that the unit be serviced immediately.
