Faces of Patient Safety: Leadership and Teamwork in Sterile Processing
At Raine Medical, we have the privilege of visiting sterile processing departments and seeing incredible teams in action. Across those visits, some of the most encouraging things we see are teams sharing knowledge, helping one another solve problems, adapting as needs change, and staying focused on the details that ultimately impact patient care. Behind many of those strong teams is strong leadership, creating opportunities for training, communication, collaboration, and access to the resources technicians rely on.
For our next Faces of Patient Safety feature, we spoke with Juana Sifuentes-Alvizo, CBSPD, a sterile processing manager at Corewell Health, and Arlene Knox, CRCST, a technician on her team. Juana shared her approach to leadership, while Arlene offered the perspective from within the team. Together, their experiences show how leadership and teamwork can reinforce one another around the shared goal of safe patient care.
Finding Their Place in Sterile Processing
Neither Juana nor Arlene necessarily set out knowing sterile processing would become their career. Juana originally considered surgical technology before finding her way into sterile processing. Nearly two decades later, she has grown from working within the department to leading a team of her own.
For Arlene, the path was different. With a background in production and warehouse environments, she began looking for an opportunity to be more of service during the COVID era. Sterile processing gave her a way to apply her existing skills while contributing to something with a direct connection to patient care. Reflecting on finding her place within the department, Arlene shared:
“I think I found my spot.”
Their paths into sterile processing may have been different, but both ultimately found purpose in work that happens largely behind the scenes and has a direct impact on the people receiving care.
Keeping the Team Prepared as Sterile Processing Evolves
Throughout Juana’s nearly two decades in sterile processing, she has watched the technical demands of the profession continue to evolve. Robotic, laparoscopic, and other advanced instruments bring additional considerations for cleaning, inspection, assembly, and processing. Keeping pace requires continuous learning across the department.
For Juana, education is a fundamental part of leadership. Her team uses huddles, meetings, retraining, cross-training, and vendor in-services to stay current as instrumentation and processes change. When new devices enter the department, Juana helps ensure technicians receive hands-on education from vendors and manufacturer representatives. The education covers not only how to properly process the device, but why each step matters. Arlene sees the value of that approach firsthand.
“They come in here and show us. Then they tell you the why.”
For Arlene, having vendors and manufacturer representatives demonstrate the process and explain the reasoning behind it helps turn instructions into understanding. That shared knowledge can also help technicians understand how their responsibilities connect to the people and processes downstream.
Building Team Knowledge Through Cross-Training
Cross-training is another way Juana’s team builds knowledge and flexibility across the department. While specialized expertise remains important in certain areas, exposure to different responsibilities gives team members a broader understanding of how each part of sterile processing connects to the next. Arlene appreciates the opportunity to continually learn:
“You’re not stuck in one mundane position day after day. You move around and see different parts.”
For Juana’s team, that broader experience helps technicians understand how their work affects what comes next. It also adds flexibility as staffing, instrumentation, and department needs change, while specialized expertise remains valuable where needed.
Teamwork Extends Beyond the Department
For Juana, teamwork extends beyond her immediate department. That includes maintaining communication with the OR as well as staying connected with sterile processing leaders at other facilities within their health system. Within the hospital, Juana has seen how education, consistent processes, and understanding the “why” can help strengthen communication between sterile processing and the OR. While the two departments have different responsibilities, their work ultimately connects around the same patient.
As Juana explained, the processes on both sides “have to come together” to help keep the patient safe. That same collaborative approach extends across facilities. Juana stays connected with sterile processing leaders at other sites, creating a network where teams can compare experiences, identify shared challenges, exchange information, and help one another when resources are needed.
One example involved blue operating room towels that began bleeding color after sterilization. Juana reached out to leaders at other sites and learned that other facilities had experienced the same issue. That connection helped identify the concern as a broader issue rather than an isolated occurrence, allowing the teams to escalate it to the vendor. Those relationships can also help when instrumentation is limited. If unexpected surgical demand creates a need, leaders can connect across facilities to determine whether another site has instrumentation available to share.
For Juana, these connections expand the knowledge and resources available to her team, allowing a challenge or need at one facility to become an opportunity for collaboration across several.
Support and Accountability
For Juana, leadership includes making sure her team has access to the knowledge, supplies, instrumentation, and support they need. Arlene described what that looks like from the technician’s side:
“You have the tools to do your job the best you can, and we have that here.”
That support extends to communication. “She listens to you.” And when Juana doesn’t immediately know the answer, “she does get back to you.” For Arlene, that trust has made a lasting impact. She described Juana as “one of the main reasons why I stayed.”
Support, however, also comes with accountability. When an issue occurs, Juana wants to understand what happened and what contributed to it. Sometimes additional education or process clarification may be needed. Other times, a team member may need additional guidance around an established procedure. Her approach also recognizes the person behind the role. People bring different experiences and circumstances to work, and Juana sees understanding those differences as part of helping team members learn and grow. For this sterile processing team, where many interconnected steps depend on one another, support, accountability, and open communication work together.
Protecting the Next Person in the Process
One of the clearest examples of teamwork came through when Arlene described how she approaches each handoff. Rather than thinking only about completing her own task, she considers the person who will handle the instrument next:
“The way I work, I try to make sure that the next person I’m turning it over to, it’s easy for them too. It’s safe for them too.”
That sense of responsibility is also personal for Arlene. Her own experiences with loved ones receiving healthcare reinforce a perspective she carries into her work:
“This could be your family member. This could be you.”
An instrument may move through decontamination, preparation, packaging, sterilization, handling, storage, transport, and eventually into the hands of the OR team. Each handoff connects one person’s work to the next.
Arlene also shared what she likes about using Raine Medical Renova™ tip protectors, particularly the range of sizes that helps her select an appropriate fit for different instruments. Juana values how that protection extends beyond the instrument itself. For her, protecting a sharp or delicate instrument also means considering the sterile processing technician handling it, the OR team receiving it, and ultimately the patient who depends on that instrument being ready for use.
As Juana explained:
“It’s protection through the whole process. Our staff, the OR staff, and the patient.”
That perspective resonates with us at Raine. Our visits with sterile processing professionals allow us to see firsthand how teams use instrument protection and learn what helps make it easier to incorporate consistently.
Details and Attention Matter
When asked to choose one word associated with patient safety, Juana chose:
Details.
For Juana, patient safety is reflected in the many details that matter throughout sterile processing, from cleaning and inspection to assembly, protection, sterilization, storage, and transport.
Arlene chose:
Attention.
Her answer went beyond the task itself, “You have to care beyond just the task of a specific job.”
Together, their answers connect attention to detail with an understanding of how each person’s work affects the next. While responsibilities differ, they ultimately work toward the same goal of safe patient care.
When Leadership and Teamwork Work Hand in Hand
Perhaps the clearest perspective on Juana’s leadership came from Arlene herself:
“She is like the heart of us.”
Throughout our conversation, Arlene showed what that leadership looks like from within the team, while Juana shared the practices and perspective behind it. For their team, it ultimately comes back to the patient. As Juana reminds them:
“We need to do those trays and those instruments as if they were for your loved ones or yourself. It could be any of us on that table.”
At Raine Medical, we’re grateful for the opportunity to learn from professionals like Juana and Arlene. Their stories remind us that behind every instrument, process, and handoff are people whose experience, knowledge, and commitment help support safe patient care. That is what Faces of Patient Safety is about: recognizing the people behind the processes and the impact they make long before the patient ever sees their work.
Interested in learning more about Raine Medical’s instrument protection for sterile processing?
Contact our team at [email protected] to request samples of our Renova™ tip protectors and RenGuard™ corner protectors for evaluation.