A real story about shared responsibility, missed catches, and finally getting the team to play together.
“I thought you had it!” — a perfect illustration of how ST108 compliance often falls between departments.
- When the water spots first appeared on the surgical trays, the Sterile Processing Director assumed it was just a detergent issue.
- The Facilities Director thought it was an equipment issue.
- And Infection Prevention figured it was just SPD being “extra cautious.”
Everyone saw the ball in the air — they just assumed someone else was catching it.
The Drop
At a mid-sized hospital with a busy OR schedule, the head of SPD had noticed an uptick in rewash cycles and water spots on instruments. His team was working harder but producing less.
The head of Facilities Engineering had just replaced a few valves and checked the building’s incoming water. Everything was “within municipal spec.”
When the two met, their conversation sounded eerily familiar:
“We checked everything on our end — must be a washer issue.”
“Our water tests are clean — must be detergent.”
And just like that, the ball hit the turf.
The Real Problem
The truth surfaced a few weeks later when the head of SPD listened to a podcast interview with Len Sparks, the COO of VERDA Water Quality Systems. He broke down ANSI/AAMI ST108 in plain language:
Municipal standards ≠ Medical device reprocessing standards.
That’s when it clicked. “City water” being fine didn’t mean it was compliant water. SPD needed higher purity, tighter control, and ongoing monitoring.
Back at the hospital, the SPD Director pulled in Infection Prevention and Facilities for a sit-down. The discussion revealed what many hospitals experience:
- SPD manages outcomes but not infrastructure.
- Facilities manages systems but not water quality data.
- Infection Prevention manages policy but not testing.
No one had “it.”
The Turning Point
Once they realized the ball had dropped, they decided to form a Water Quality Task Force. With VERDA’s guidance, they traced the entire water pathway — from municipal entry to final rinse — and discovered a few critical blind spots:
- Dead legs in the loop fostering microbial growth
- Conductivity levels fluctuating outside ST108 limits
- Lack of routine sanitization and documentation
It wasn’t negligence — it was a communication gap.
Getting Back in the Game
Together, the team restructured their approach:
Facilities took ownership of system maintenance and logging.
SPD implemented daily monitoring and recordkeeping per ST108.
Infection Prevention oversaw trend reviews and corrective actions.
They created a shared data dashboard, set quarterly review meetings, and brought their “playbook” into alignment. The next time the Joint Commission came through, the surveyors were impressed — not by fancy equipment, but by cross-department teamwork.
And most importantly, the instruments came out spotless.
VERDA’s View from the Dugout
At VERDA Water Quality Systems, we see this scenario constantly: well-intentioned teams missing “it” because responsibilities are siloed.
Our role is to help hospitals catch the ball — providing the testing, monitoring, and reporting structure that connects Facilities, SPD, and Infection Prevention into one cohesive water management team.
Because when it comes to ST108, it’s not about who has it — it’s about catching it together. If you want to catch more, contact us and let us know.
[photo curtesy of Vox Media, LLC]