INTRODUCTION TO CSSD
HISTORY
To-day,more and more infectious diseases form a serious threat to people's health.
Adequate Sterile Supply plays an essential role in the attempt to reduce the spreading of diseases within the health service.
Many instruments and materials used for medical &surgical interventions are very expensive and are designed such that they can be re-used.
A high quality reprocessing cycle is necessary in which the used materials are treated in a way can be used safely again.
The central processing area is one such manufacturing and production unit within the healthcare facility.
In olden days the work of Sterilization was carried out in the Operation Theatre,with the help of sterilizer which were fitted in the OT itself.
Many Units too had their own sterilizers.
Due to concentrating on other work,the practice of Sterilization was neglected.Items were left in the sterilizer longer periods of time and thus damaged by overheating,or kept for a shorter time and properly sterilized resulting in the risk of infection.
The operation of the Sterilizer was everyone's business but no one's responsibility.Thus in 1928,the American College of Surgeons first thought of separating the work of sterilization from the operation theatre.
Hence,to establish and maintain standardized sterilization procedures throughout the institution,a separate centralized area was designated.
This is often referred to as the Central Sterile Supply Department(CSSD),Central Service(CS),TSSR,TSSU,CSU etc.

The central sterile services department (CSSD), also called sterile processing department (SPD), sterile processing, central supply department (CSD), or central supply, is an integrated place in hospitals and other health care facilities that performs sterilization and other actions on medical devices, equipment and consumables; for subsequent use by health workers in the operating theatre of the hospital and also for other aseptic procedures, e.g. catheterization, wound stitching and bandaging in a medical,surgical, maternity or paediatric ward.
The operations usually consist of cleaning of previously used devices, like stainless steel tools, with a sterilizing liquid. After drying the device on a stand (not by hand or cloth) it gets wrapped in a specialized paper bag (called an aseptor bag), tape-sealed and then sterilized by gas or in a steam autoclave, according to the prescripts in place at the facility.
An expiry date gets written on the wrapped equipment or consumable, before being supplied to the end-user as a sterile product. If along the supply route, the sealed package got damaged or opened by a health worker, it needs to be returned to the CSSD for re-sterilization.
A sterile processing technician is someone who cleans and sterilizes used surgical instruments and other medical supplies so that they can be safely redistributed and reused on additional patients. This work is usually centralized in a special department of the medical facility.
Here in Philippines theres only few Schools that offer this kind of course. The first School is International Sterile Service Management Inc. (IISSMI) and they start and until today it still functioning and they are under of TESDA. Mr. Lambert is the founder of this first school and he is an ex OFW.