Sterilization Tech

Do you want to make a difference in your community?

Do you enjoy working with a diverse team helping a diverse patient population?

Are you exploring career opportunities where you can be trained and enjoy continued professional growth?

Are you a seasoned dental receptionist looking for a home?

We offer competitive salary and generous benefits including paid time off, retirement, medical, dental, vision, wellness and continuing education. You will also benefit from consistent hours and schedules. We have been voted as one of the Best Places to work in the Bay area for the past 11 years. We are nationally recognized for having best practices in the provision of dental care and for our quality improvement program. We are located in beautiful wine country, between rolling hills and the rugged coast.

 FULL TIME EMPLOYEE BENEFITS:

• 21 Days of Paid Time Off
• 10 Observed Holidays
• Medical Insurance (Entire deductible paid by us!)
• 30 Chiropractor and Acupuncture visits per year included with enrollment in our health insurance plans (Kaiser and WHA)
• Dental Insurance
• Vision Insurance
• Gym Membership Discounts at Synergy Health Club and 24-Hour Fitness!
• 401K Matching after 1 year of employment
• Flexible Spending Account, Dependent Care FSA
• Life Insurance (included at no cost to the employee)
• Long Term Disability (included at no cost to the employee)
• Employee Assistance Program (included at no cost to the employee)

Summary: The Sterile Processing Technician performs and participates in decontamination, cleaning, assembling and disassembling, packaging, sterilization, storage and tracking, and distribution of reusable medical and surgical equipment. The technician also manages durable medical equipment. Records location of new equipment and trains staff in safe use, performs maintenance, tracks major repairs on equipment, and returns equipment to use.

Areas of Responsibility:

• Follow guidelines, policies, and procedures for sterilization to ensure that medical instruments are completely decontaminated before use.
• Maintains current knowledge of best practice for cleaning and sterilization according to Joint commission, CDC, and AST (Association of Surgical Technologists). Maintains certification through continuing education requirements.
• Responsible for autoclave heat sterilization and cold sterilization of heat sensitive equipment.
• Understands the use of Standard Precautions for personal protection and basic infection control.
• Operating and monitoring steam autoclaves, sonic washers, and other sterilizing equipment according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
• Reviews, troubleshoots, and repairs medical equipment failures.
• Cleaning and preventative maintenance sterilizing equipment per protocol by manufacturer and documentation by Joint Commission standards.
• Collect all instruments from the team areas and organize surgical instrument sets.
• Taking inventory and reporting instrument loss, stocking all supplies for sterile processing of instruments.
• Records sterilizer test results daily M-F.
• Cleans and reassembles and tests instruments after decontamination and sterilization.
• Reports sterilized HLD failures or errors to supervisor immediately.
• Maintenance of eye wash stations.
• Maintaining personal protection per OSHA guidelines as it pertains to personal safety, i.e., protective clothing, eyewear, gloves.
• Monitor biological indicators by using indicators in each package, daily Point of Care sport testing; records and tracks all results to ensure patient safety.
• Maintain the supply of liquid nitrogen and refill portable bottles for team.
• Monitors temperatures for refrigerated controls used for point of care laboratory tests.
• Tracking and maintenance of existing and new medical equipment.
• Validates the functionality after equipment is returned from being repaired.
• Ensures that all periodic calibration is completed for equipment used for patient care such as digital blood pressure monitors, scales, and sterilizing equipment.
• Other duties as required by the organization.

Education/Experience:

• Bachelors of Arts or Science preferred

 Desired Skills:

• Must have the ability to follow detailed instructions.
• Organizational skills, problem solving skills, communication and customer service skills.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team in a fast-paced environment.

Licenses and Certifications:

• Certification as a sterile processing technician required; candidates without certification must complete certification within one year of hire and have experience in the job role or medical assisting or CNA.
• Candidate must be able to successfully meet PHC’s credentialing and privileging requirements.

Language Skills: English, both written and verbal is required. Bilingual in English and Spanish, both written and verbal preferred.