How to Improve Sterilization Within the Medical Field
AI-Generated Transcript below. There may be errors.
Claire Davis 0:20
Hey everybody and welcome back to today's medical sales leader. I am so thrilled to have this person with me today Hank Balch, here he is from the sterile processing world. And the reason why you want to get to know this man to my right left, I can never quite get which way around somewhere. Yeah, right you're you're here, you're here next to me is because he not only shows us how to do this really, really well, and helps people in the space, really master the art of making sure that things are instruments are cleaned and to the, to the level that helps other patients thrive, that helps people to have you know more success in their surgeries and whatever they're doing in the hospital. But he also does it with a true mission at heart, don't hide it, when there are mistakes they happen. Let's all work together to actually fix things and progress and move forward. So Hank, I love what you're doing out here on LinkedIn. And I'm so glad to have you today on the show. Thanks so much for coming.
Hank Balch 1:16
I really appreciate the invite Claire. And yeah, looking forward to digging into anything under the sun or touches LinkedIn branding, sterile processing, Michigan, etc.
Claire Davis 1:26
Awesome. I remember, you know, back in my medical sales days, I was a little bit removed from the sterile processing rooms, not for you know, a reason they weren't like clear stay out of there. But you know, when I was in the hospital, mostly it was in pathology, or in the O R. And I'll admit, while I knew Claire don't even come close to that drape, or that tray on the table in the O R, that's as deep as it got with my understanding as what went into sterile processing for surgery. So can you talk a little bit about what your what the arena looks like? What sterile processing really involved in why it's so very important that it's done? Well, in the OR?
Hank Balch 2:10
Yeah, so it's complex industry? I think that's probably one of the assumptions out there is it's, you know, kind of simple, how hard can it be to clean something or to throw something in an autoclave to get it sterile? Well, in all actuality, it can be pretty complex. It's highly regulatory space, or highly regulated space, through the CDC, through FDA through the medical devices that are coming in, of course, through CMS that does the accreditation side of everything. Our goal in sterile processing is for anything that's reused in the surgical setting. And that's kind of a shock to the public. When you're like, Hey, did you know that in your surgery, I caught a lot of the things have been used before, sometimes hundreds of times in the imagine like this, not the scalpel blade with a scalpel handle, the scissors, the clams, all those things are used again and again. So it's our team and sterile processing that is charged with not only cleaning and sterilizing. And reprocessing is kind of the term they use, but also ensuring that it's still functional after use and use and use. So the scissors are still cutting, they're still sharp, the clamps was gentle clamping other attractors are still retracting in a way that they did the first day that we bought them, but also that they're ready on time. So what good is a sponsor that cuts that's in the process of becoming sterile, but you're on the table, and you need it, and it's not ready. So there's a lot of moving parts, a lot of regulatory oversight, as I said. And you know, as you mentioned before, the transparency piece, there's a lot of gaps today, that in all actuality, we've gotten a lot of work to do to get up to the standard that I think patients assume that we're at, but it's, it's a scary place out there.
Claire Davis 4:08
Yeah, no kidding. Well, and I think that's probably goes for 99% of people out there is you know, we have the luxury of not having to worry whether our whether the instruments and all the things being used within a surgery are clean or not, you know, are functioning properly, like you said, so, when you are when you're first introducing this kind of thing to people, when you're talking about this on LinkedIn, what are the assumptions of you know, what are the assumptions that people make? And what are some things they might be surprised by when it comes to the actual you know, functionality and cleanliness of these kinds of tools? Like if you if you were to say most people can expect that everything is 100% clean, or would you say that you You know, maybe it's been trending and getting better over the years. What's it what's it looked like?
Hank Balch 5:05
So I'm horrible with stats, just do not have a brain for numbers. But the stats, if you will look at the numbers, the number of surgical site infections, or the number of healthcare acquired infections, really startling, I mean, anybody who's was looking at the data, I think, should come away saying I don't want to have surgery unless I absolutely need it, I don't want to be in a hospital, because it's a dangerous place to be. And that's kind of a weird thing to say from the inside. But it's true. And that just goes back again, like I'm all about truth telling. Because if we're not honest with the problems, we're not even, we're not going to work as hard as we should be working to solve them. So that's the first piece, there's an assumption of safety. Now, granted, we have some of the best health care in the world. But there's still there's a lot of errors happening every single day in operating rooms across the country, and errors all the way from patients dropping off of beds, to incorrect surgery on the wrong side of your body, like they needed to replace your right knee and they replaced your left knee. Now, that kind of information is like shocking. In the public conversation, there's a book out there by Atul Gawande called complications. And he goes through this idea that we call it practicing medicine for a reason. Because there's humans involved, and you need to practice this art. And along the way, errors are made. It just is what it is. And so the same is true in sterile processing. Even the highest rated department out there with the best people the best processes, will make mistakes. And so the challenge for us is to reduce those mistakes as much as we possibly can, and correctly and clearly communicate to the public what the real challenge and risks are. The last thing I'll say about that pieces on our side of the equation in sterile processing, and we'd like to challenge folks going into surgery, talking to their surgeons, everybody wants a good surgeon. Everybody wants a highly rated hospital, they're looking at the quality ratings, hey, I want to five star I want to I want to go to like the LeapFrog, you know, whatever, A plus rating. But nobody's asking, Okay, I want a high performing sterile processing team at my hospital. Because I'll tell you, some of the biggest named hospitals out there, who you think oh, man, that brand is like beyond compare. This is the best hospital best research, you go into sterile processing. And oftentimes it is a disaster, for lack of a better phrase. And it's not always their fault. It's not like we have people down there that do not want to do the right thing. Many times there's lack of training, investment, etc. But that's, that's where I ultimately talk about mission, I want to get the public tuned into these conversations and asking questions as they're going in saying, hey, how good is your sterile processing team here? Because that's the kind of questions it's gonna drive investment.
Claire Davis 8:26
And what kind of things do you see like when it comes to a hospital that maybe doesn't have the, you know, the, maybe they have a robust brand, but when you're looking under the numbers, and you're seeing Okay, wait, something's going on, things aren't being cleaned or fixed or restored to the way that they should be? What does that look like? Like for, you know, for layman's terms, what, what are the markers that show that, hey, there needs to be some changes made?
Hank Balch 8:53
I think everybody who has been in medical device sales, or medical sales in general knows the answer to that question, right? Because you get in, in the doors, you're having conversations behind scenes you see in the back hallways, you know, what's going on, and there's a host of examples of that, right, you know, but for the sterile processing side, I'll just throw out like one common example that's been happening over the last, you know, five to 10 years and this is the whole robotic push, all this money and all the branding, all the marketing has been thrown into robotics. And so we got the big billboards out there, you know, and so patients are like, Yeah, I want to go in because you know, smaller holes, everything else. Well, I'm gonna recover faster and the nerves Yeah, yeah. If if sterile processing is able to do their job because those devices are more complex. And the cleaning instructions in the sterilization process is more complex, which means more opportunity for air. And in very, very simple things like will spend a couple of million dollars on a new robot. And then we'll forget Oh, yes, there'll process Scene also needs a washer that can fit those robotic arms. Because when these washers were made, there were no robotic arms. They didn't have anything now on. And we see this like, all across the country skilled out again and again and again, we got new devices coming in. And he technology down sterile processing to keep up with that complexities is just not keeping up.
Claire Davis 10:23
Yeah. And who, you know how how can that start to keep up? Is it is it teams who are in hospitals saying, Hey, we've got these things here that we really can't clean? We can't restore properly? You know, we need help, or are there committees? How does that? How does it happen to? How do you get the right cleaning instruments in there?
Hank Balch 10:41
I mean, you're asking the question, and I know our team at beyond clean. Our model is it, your conversation has to come out of the basement, which is where a lot of these sterile processing departments are, in into the public arena, into social media, into print media in a video in a way that's gonna capture not only the attention of the hospital administrators, because that's usually where we start, but you need pressure on on them to say, oh, yeah, like, now there's like an NBC Nightly News story about this, you know, okay, now we're gonna get some things fixed, right? Or even like a local newspaper, right? Like, when the stuff hits the fan, you get a lot of investment, a lot of attention, but we don't want it to get to that spot. And that's why we really need to be creative about how we communicate and put that pressure on proactively.
Claire Davis 11:39
Yeah, I mean, I can imagine that, you know, hospital systems are like shaking in their shoes right now hearing this kind of thing. Because really, I mean, hospitals are huge organizations, there are a lot of skeletons in the closet and things that they're either fixing, trying to fix or don't know, they need to fix it. So, you know, say if somebody, say if a hospital administrator were to, to see, hey, we're seeing a trend here with surgeries, and we think maybe sterile processing is where we need to, you know, put some more support, you know, how do they how do they go about that? Do they call beyond clean? Is there a what, what's the best way for them to like take steps toward remedying that.
Hank Balch 12:22
I mean, they can call us if they want to, but we're not gonna be able to help them too much. On the practical side of things now, I will tell you like a couple things that we talked to hospital administrators on a regular basis when it comes to education, because a lot of what we do through being unclean, is that clinical education conversation, equipping all of these frontline technicians with the information that they need to ask questions, because again, a lot of these gaps is just because there's, there has not been that upfront investment in training, and ongoing education and support to know Oh, yeah, this is against standards, or what are the standards? And then how do we, how do we navigate the justification process, you know, to get a new washer to get new equipment, etc. But the first steps, you know, from that administrative kind of perspective is to engage the clinicians, especially these department leaders in in those ongoing questions around quality, infection prevention, because many, many times you've got these like, quality committees, you've got the Chief of Surgery, you've got the law director, you've got quality and risk. And one person who's not in the room is the sterile processing manager and director. And that's, it's really a shame because our voice is not even present in these conversations, to be able to give feedback to ask questions to raise your hand and say, Hey, if you buy this robot, I'm going to need this washer downstairs, that we don't even get that opportunity, because we're not at the table. So I, a lot of what we do, again, on our team is we encourage these departmental leaders to do what we call build your own chair, and invite yourself to the meetings, you know, find out where they are, and just say, hey, come and I'm not on the invite list. But I'm coming because I need to be there. And the more you do that, you know, the more welcome and the more value that everyone else is going to see that you bring to those things because it is it's critical part to safe patient care.
Claire Davis 14:34
Why do you think that's so interesting, and I'm so glad you're empowering people in that way. Why do you think that of all those departments sterile processing is getting the, you know, the the treatment that that it does that it sounds like it does?
Hank Balch 14:49
Yeah, it's not a sexy department. It's not a revenue generating department. You know, number one, that's probably the first place that people go is a Uh, it's a call center. Going back to, to where we started, there's a something, there's an assumption that it's kind of a simple job, you just put dirty instruments out or in and then clean instruments come out, how hard can it be? And then to, to add complexity to it. And this was actually an interview that we did on one of our podcasts with a doctor named Larry Musker Rayleigh talking about antibiotics. So this is a real kicker, and this is kind of scary pieces. Many times folks don't realize how bad or broken the process is, because we're using all of these drugs prophylactically prior to surgery, and so even if we are introducing organisms, the patient's still not getting an infection, because we got these drugs, you know, which is good. That's the success the patient didn't, did not get surgical site infection, but the process is broken. And, and as everybody knows, now, now we're talking about these multi drug resistant organisms, the superbugs as they're called. And so that plan of action is not a long term solution anymore. So now it's becoming even more important to get sterile processing fixed today, before we run out of the drugs tomorrow, no kidding
Claire Davis 16:29
Oh, it's terrifying. My husband's a provider. And I remember early when we were dating, he and I had a long talk about, you know, resistant. You know, what's the what's the supervisor, you know, but, but things that are resistant to the traditional antibiotics, we've been taking for decades, the Z pack, right, who hasn't taken a Z pack in their life or the or, or heard of that. And, and now, unfortunately, we're seeing the ramification of you know, people aren't being, you know, they're not able to get the solution that they once were by taking things like that. So do you think that when it comes to empowering the people of that department, because I think in some sense, you know, wherever we are in the hospital, whether your reps, if you're here listening in your medical sales rep, or manager, or maybe you're, you know, you're in sterile processing yourself? Is there a way that you are empowering the people in that unit? To take this upon themselves to say, Okay, I know that my hospital may be D prioritizing the, my, my work here, right? So it's not maybe as front and center as it needs to be? How do you empower people in that department to really take the reins here and jump on with the mission of getting things more clean, but like the overall mission?
Hank Balch 17:55
Yeah, so this is kind of where I part ways with the industry, status quo response to that question. And it really, you know, I guess, maybe six or seven years ago, I started talking about this and blogged about it. Because I was in that apartment, I had been a technician, I was in managing and directing departments in Kentucky in Texas. And the stock answer to that question is, we need more education we need to become certified is kind of the answer. And that's the answer that we've been given for decades. By the way, it's not a new answer. We've been trying this certification game for years and years and years, and yet, no change, no change in the respect, no change in the, in the quality of the data, all those things, no change. So I'm sitting there thinking like, Well, guys, you know, the definition of insanity. Insanity is doing the same thing. Back to different results, right. So what are they doing? So I tend to say, Okay, we love education, right? My whole company is built around education. So we value education, but not as the only solution or the best solution for bringing us out of the shadows and out of the basement. Instead, I would, I would proffer two things, get creative about how we communicate, stop talking to ourselves, because that was happening in the industry. We go to our conferences, we talk to ourselves, you do this magazine that only our initial reads, right? Like nothing is ever leaving this echo chamber. And we're surprised why no one else knows about us. So get that message out. Number two, and it kind of goes to the comment that I mentioned that I'm not good at stats, but data is our friend. So all the data that we can bring out in front and keep pushing it out until other people who can do things with that data or that data makes sense to like data scientists or other physicians or Other epidemiologists like all of those people, if we keep pushing data out of our departments out in front, there will be people who it lands on their radar. And then they've got the power, they got the insight to do something with it.
Claire Davis 20:15
That's great. And you know what, too, I think that, although it's great not to just talk with the people that, like you said, are in the industry and keep that to be a closed conversation. One thing I know about you, other than how you're very mission driven with this cause, which is amazing. I think that I think that the way that you talk about this issue, the way that you talk about what the future could look like, for healthcare in this way, is really inspiring. But another thing I think, is, you're really leading the way in connecting with others in the industry digitally, to make the conversation bigger. And I think that, you know, data is great. And then when we know what to do with it, or when we share it, that's when it really has power. So do you have any examples of how you know your your networking, your your being on LinkedIn, and sharing your mission of, you know, getting clean, right? How that's really spurred change in an organization or with teams like, can you tell me a little bit about what the effect has been that you've seen?
Hank Balch 21:21
It's really shocking to me, the impact that small little podcast, right, so like, let's just think about this for a second 2017 podcasting is not new, but it's it's still in its kind of toddler stage. And this random guy on LinkedIn reaches out to me randomly through LinkedIn and says, Hey, Hank, I've been seen you kind of blogging on LinkedIn writing on LinkedIn and about sterile processing topics. Have you ever thought about creating a podcast about sterile processing? And and I was like, oh, yeah, you know, I thought about it, but it seems like a lot of work. And I don't want to do by myself. In out of that conversation, I only would we launched a podcast about sterile processing the most random podcast in the world. Like there's probably a couple more random than that, but you know, pretty freakin random. then grow into out only a very successful podcast has been downloaded out 160 countries, I keep waiting for North Korea to start listening to him and started listening yet, but you're my math North Korea. Then we also we also got this, this past month, we crossed over the 1 million download mark. You know, for sterile processing podcast? Who who does that? who listened to that? Well, I'll tell you, and this is getting your question. We tapped into a very, very hungry audience, that for years and years and years had been neglected and all the ways that we're talking about and they wanted not only technical information, because that was the one thing that we were pretty good at, you know, we're pretty good at talking about what are the standards? What are the regulatory like, what is required of you, when we weren't good at is okay. Yeah, but how do you do those things? Like, are we sharing best practices? And are we bringing synergies, like what you mentioned, outside of our four walls into like, can we talk to surgeons? Can we talk to infection prevention? Can we talk to entrepreneurs and innovators that are doing fun, creative things, and we talked to other people outside of our country, we started doing all that through his platform and podcasts that we launched in Yeah, the list is like, so long, I can't even I can't begin with the businesses that will be launched, because they heard an episode on the podcast, and like, Hey, that's a good idea. I'm gonna go do that thing. And we're like, wow, so like, I flew out to the middle of Wyoming a couple of years ago. And it was this guy who liked to listen to podcasts couple years before, and started a company to solve a solution in sterile processing. The same story is true, like we have folks that listen to the show, in their staff meetings in sterile processing, as a way to spark conversation in their departments about their processes to change the way that they do things to care for patients. So that kind of data like I don't have that in a spreadsheet anywhere, but it's been kind of thrust out into the emails and into the direct messages, you know, so much that I know that it's having an impact you and outside of the download numbers and that kind of stuff.
Claire Davis 24:35
Oh, that's amazing. And I think that you know, not that everybody maybe knows this yet, but you know, you having this outreach on social media to get this message out. I don't think it was just an industry when I think it's certainly an industry when because finally these people have you know, these people but the you know, these folks in these departments have some really specific content that relates to them. Um, can spark these conversations. But personally, I know that for you, this is a big win as well. Because when it comes to your growth as like a speaker and a businessman, you know, what was it like starting a podcast can you know in the first place because knowing this, this is my second go around. The first time we had a podcast, it was called Power Hour. And like you, I started out with a couple buddies, and it was great. But you know, it's not for the faint of heart, either. You got to keep showing up every day and make making sure you're bringing value to the generous people who are here to listen. So can you talk a little bit about what the beginning stages were like for you personally? For this podcast?
Hank Balch 25:43
Yeah. So if if there's one person in the industry that you would think would not be the one to start a podcast, I would be that person. Right. So yeah, surprise, surprise. And the reason what's kind of curious, the reason that me and our co founder found each other is because I was writing. And that's really what I was passionate about. I loved writing. That's where that was kind of my skill set, even like through college, but it was because in, in grade school all the way up until basically junior senior in high school, I had a severe speech impediment, and stutter and stammer. And so any, any kind of public speaking, like I'm, I understand that all kinds of people don't like public speaking. But I wasn't only in there, because I didn't like public speaking, I was scared. It's like, No, literally, I could not get my words out of my mouth, to communicate. And then all of the embarrassment, all the anxiety, and everything else that came with that. And so even though now today, through a lot of speech therapy, and everything else, I am now managing my speech that is still inside my head, and inside me somewhere. And so when we started talking about this podcast, one of the things that sold me is, hey, we can edit. I gotta give a shout out to all my producers, you know, through the years that have suffered through the early edits, especially of this guy who likes speaking was not my gift at all. Through that, though, and this is the other kind of second thing that we learned along the way, as we were probably, you know, four or five episodes, and we did a weekly, I was still doing a weekly show, you know, but we launched the weekly episodes. We did 52 weeks in a row in our first year. Wow. And early on. Like I said, like four or five episodes in, I realized, hey, people are tuning in not to listen to me. They're tuning into listen to the guest. And I just took a lot of pressure off of the host, because you're just there, like your ear candy, right? You're not, you're not there to carry it along or nothing. It is rare to find great guest to platform, great ideas and great insights and get out of the way. And I've been doing it successfully ever since I've been getting out of the way for five years now.
Claire Davis 28:14
Thanks, man getting out of the way, You're too modest. So so first of all, I mean, I just commend you, because I know I know what a grind it can be to stick with something that long and and so every time I listen to something that you produce, I hear incredible value from it from the what we were talking about right before we started recording, which was the videos that you're doing on each individual instrument to orient people to the audio rooms you're doing on LinkedIn, like the one I saw you in with Jonica Farah recently, like, you were definitely meant to do what you're doing. And I think that the the way that you overcame an incredible challenge to truly help people in this arena is really something. So I'm excited that you're here. And also, the editing tool is my friend is very much.
Hank Balch 29:07
Hey, man. Yeah.
Claire Davis 29:08
So let me ask you this. I know, our time is coming to a close here. But if someone wants to get in touch with you learn from you learn where in this case, medical sales professionals, management, anybody listening today can make it even more clear that sterile processing is a key element to the health care process, and maybe how they can help. Where can they get in touch with you and find out more about what you're doing at beyond clean?
Hank Balch 29:38
Yeah, so I would I would tell you before you get in touch with me if you're in, in medical device sales, go down and find your sterile processing department in the hospitals that you're going in today. knock on their door and say, Hey, you don't know me. I don't know you. I don't know anything about sterile processing. But I would like to know Can I schedule time to come check things out and just talk to your team? If you do that, for me, that's mission accomplished. To track me down on LinkedIn, that's my baby. I've been here for nine years or so. And you can look me up at linkedin.com/insterileprocessing. How about that for a vanity URL? Okay. And then you can track down everything that we're doing at beyond clean at beyond clean.net 300. Plus continuing education opportunities there, ton of podcasts, ton of videos, a lot of articles. And just a lot of good conversation, like you said, Claire, about challenging the status quo, trying to build up in outward together as an industry, not just in sterile processing, but all of healthcare.
Claire Davis 30:48
I love it. Yeah. I mean, it's a team approach, right. And when I think when we approach it that way, when we really get known in departments where we may, we may have nothing to do with, but we know that as a team, we can make things more efficient and better for patients. And it makes all the difference. So if you're listening today, thank you so much for joining me and Hank, and I'm going to put all those links that he mentioned, so that you can connect with him. You can learn more about what he's doing with the unclean and find him over on LinkedIn, his baby of nine years. Today in the show notes, so thank you so much for joining me today. Hank, I really appreciate it. And here's to the next one. Okay.
Hank Balch 31:23
All right. Sounds great. Thanks.
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