| | On the Mark  |
From the President
First, we would like to thank you for your business and continued support during 2009. This has been a challenging year but hopefully still very rewarding for you. The global economic conditions have impacted healthcare and the economy as a whole unlike any year in recent memory. We recognize the fact that many of our users are working without a full compliment of staff, and we hope that you have found Censitrac® and our support staff to be helpful in dealing with your daily work load. We strive every day to exceed your expectations. Hopefully in the coming year we will see an improved economy.
Early in 2009, Censis reached a milestone when the 200th healthcare facility signed up to use Censitrac®. Our system currently tracks over 1.3 million individually marked surgical instruments at the over 50 healthcare facilities that utilize Censitrac® for instrument level tracking. In addition, over 30,000 pieces of mobile equipment and almost a quarter million surgical instrument trays are managed using Censitrac. Also during the year, we had a substantial increase in customers utilizing our electronic sterilization record keeping functionality and now average over 84,000 loads per month being stored in Censitrac ®.
We had 4 major releases during 2009 that incorporated over 100 items suggested by our customers. Our development team included enhancements to improve patient safety, make Censitrac even more user friendly, and expand the features and functions available. We also rolled out Censitrac® to the OR. If you are not currently utilizing ConnectAssure for your sterilizers, I strongly encourage you to contact your Customer Service Representative to arrange a demonstration. We believe the implementation of Connect Assure, along with the OR scheduling system interface to Censitrac®, can significantly improve the daily operations in Central Sterile and the OR.
We completely revised our website this year to make it more interactive. Please check it out at www.censis.net. In the first quarter of 2010 we will be adding a customer portal that will enable you to search for helpful information, access and search documentation, and even order supplies and hardware through the website. We will continue to enhance the web site to make it a valuable tool for you to use in your normal daily activities.
We are looking forward to 2010 and continuing our role as the leader in the industry. In the coming year we will continue to expand and enhance Censitrac® so that it not only meets your needs, but surpasses what you believed could be delivered from an instrument management system.
As always, please feel free to email me with any comments or suggestions you may have.
Randy Smith
President / CEO
Censis Technologies
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(615) 468-8000 From everyone here at Censis we hope you have a safe and happy holiday season! |
Business Development |
As 2009 draws to a close, it is always important to look back and consider our accomplishments over the year. I would suspect that all of us do this either in our mind or sometimes we jot them down.
In this spirit, Censitrac® gained over 50 new additional facilities in 2009. They joined the existing 150 facilities that elected to implement the most robust tracking system for CS and OR departments looking for innovation and efficiency. These new clients range in size from small, free-standing surgery centers, to large teaching and governmental hospitals; and in location from urban centers in Boston to the islands of Hawaii and even Australia. Now more than ever, hospital stake holders are acknowledging what many reading this newsletter have already discovered: having the ability to locate and track the use of surgical instruments is invaluable.
Do you know a peer at another facility who has challenges that Censitrac® could address? If so, please let them know your thoughts, and pass along our contact information to those in supply chain or infection control who know first hand how important it has become to implement Censitrac® tracking capabilities. If any of you would like your facility designated as a "show-site" location, please contact me for details. Thanks again for your continued use and support of Censitrac® and have a great 2010 !
Jim Creason
Senior VP of Business Development
Censis Technologies
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615-468-8009 |
Technology | 
Although it is hopefully a rare event, whenever a sterilizer load needs to be recalled, Censitrac® makes the process quick and effective. With one click of a button, a facility-wide alert is set up. Then a recall message will be displayed on the screen whenever one of the impacted trays is scanned. A report is also produced of all the contents in the recalled load, showing the current location of each item. As each item is returned to Sterile Processing and successfully reprocessed, a staff member validates that it is now safe for release and removes the alert for that tray.
Censitrac® also provides the ability to manually generate alerts for any event that warrants a facility-wide notification, such as a quick turnaround requirement, returning a long lost tray to Central Sterile, etc. You create the content of the alert message that will be displayed and select the tray(s) that should be flagged. Anywhere in the facility that one of these trays is scanned in Censitrac®, the custom alert message will be displayed prompting the correct action. As always, if you need more information, just call our Help Desk at 888-877-3010, Opt # 1
Janice Hardrath
Chief Technology Officer Censis Technologies
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615-468-8004 |
Client Services | Loaner Module
Just about every hospital has some type of issue when it comes to loaner/vendor trays. When did they come in ? Who are they for ? Where did they go? What is their status ?
Censitrac® has a Loaner Module that addresses all of these questions. We have two different options of the Loaner module that will fit any hospitals needs, the Basic and Advanced. The barcode labels shown below are from the Advanced Module and depict the many items that can be printed on the label that aid in the traceability and process flow through the hospital.  If you are having issues or if you just want to try a better way of handling your loaner trays, please call our Help Desk at 888-877-3010, Opt # 1 for a web demo of the Loaner Module today ! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Just a reminder In observance of the holidays, the Help Desk will be closed Dec 24th, 25th and Jan 1st. As always, if you have an emergency work stoppage please call the Help Desk at 888-877-3010, Opt # 1 and leave your name, hospital, phone number where you can be reached and a brief description of your problem and someone will contact you immediately.
Kevin Bevill Director Client Services Censis Technologies
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615-468-8007 |
Featured Hospital - Southeast Missouri |
Equipment Tracking Kevin Gerhardt says, "before Censitrac®, we wrote down in a logbook where we were sending the various pieces of hospital equipment. This process was very laborious and not always accurate. To find out where equipment was, meant digging through page after page of documentation and we found it easier just to go walking the halls of the hospital until we found it. Our Bio Med Department had a very hard time trying to keep up with PM's on the machines because they didn't want to flip through papers either. Since installing Censitrac®, we know exactly where every piece of equipment is and can locate them immediately. The Bio Med Department can just run a report in Censitrac® to find out what equipment is due for maintenance. This has helped us achieve our overall goal of patient safety in assuring we have properly functioning equipment 100% of the time."
Kevin Gerhardt, CRCST Instrument Tracking Coordinator 
Brenda Kuntze, from Southeast Missouri, scans an IV Pump out of Central Sterile to Recovery.
Container Assembly
Gail Linamen assembles a Lap Tray by scanning each instrument's barcode Kevin Gerhardt says, " A co-worker transferred into Central Sterile and had very little to no knowledge of instrumentation when coming into the department. Having the ability to scan each instrument for identification and the visual aid of the actual picture, this new tech quickly learned her instruments, where they went, and became very proficient assembling containers in half the time that it would have taken without Censitrac®. This person became certified and has been a leader in the department for quite some time now. 
Kevin Gerhardt applies a data matrix to another instrument for easy identification. |
Chemical Marking | | Marking Technique Tip Our new Chemical Marking Unit includes an alligator clip for those odd shaped instruments that are difficult to mark with the conventional method. As I demonstrate below, just cut off one row of stencil to allow the easy manipulation of the mark around the instrument. Take the alligator clip and attach it to the ground wire and then clip to the instrument. This technique provides an easy marking solution for your flexible and rigid scopes, light cords, and any rounded instruments. 
If you have any questions concerning this special method of marking, or Chemical Marking in general, please call the Help desk at 1-888-877-3010 Opt. 1. Shane Petyak
Chemical Marking Manager Censis Technologies
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Ordering Supplies |     
For a comprehensive list of supplies and all your purchasing needs - please contact Brian Mills Brian Mills Censis Technologies
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615-468-8019 |
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