Who We Are - Healthcare Sterile Processing Association (HSPA)

Sterile Processing: The Heart of the Hospital

Before a surgeon can make that initial incision, a team of skilled Sterile Processing professionals has worked diligently to ensure that each and every instrument is properly decontaminated, sterilized, well-functioning, and available when needed. Waves of surgical instruments and devices flow in and out of these rooms in constant motion, supplying essential elements to keep the healthcare facility functioning smoothly. This is Sterile Processing. The most crucial link in the chain of care from professional to treatment to patient. Everything hinges on the care and attention of each technician inside, the virtual heartbeat of your healthcare facility.

We Are Sterile Processing

What We Do

We prepare surgical instruments and devices. That means we clean, inspect, test, sterilize, store and deliver devices needed for surgery in a healthcare facility. Because of the work we do, surgeons can operate safely on patients in our communities.
We anticipate the needs of our customers. Departments throughout the healthcare facility from the operating room to the clinics rely on the surgical instruments and devices we prepare. These departments rely on our precision, our attention to detail and our layered skills and knowledge related to surgical instrumentation.

How We Partner & Learn

We collaborate with our vendor partners and the medical teams throughout our facilities to ensure instruments are available when they are needed. The patients’ needs always come first and they deserve the care and attention we give to the safety of the instruments used on them.
We lead by example and believe that the process of learning to be a sterile processing tech will never be something that we can simply check of our list. The rules change, best practices change, technology changes...Continuing education is an essential part of our professional development because it promotes and encourages things like quality and safety in the face of the constant evolution.

Why It Matters

Here, in Sterile Processing, lives are saved every single day. Within these walls, care and dedication bridge the gap between skill and precision, between hope and assuredness. The heroes hard at work here every hour of every day deserve the utmost thanks. The Sterile Processing industry is filled with people who strive and challenge themselves to make informed decisions each moment that impact the people whose lives are in their hands.

History and Timeline

IAHCSMM began in the 1950s with a visionary – Mary Helen Anderson – who gathered like-minded colleagues to share information that related to the Central Service/Sterile Processing profession. Over the ensuing five decades, the Association's members have built a solid, respectable profession by defining their uniqueness, training, certification, continuing education, and quest for quality customer service and patient care.

This is all accomplished in an environment of compassion and dedication -- for patients who frequently never know even the name of the Central Service professionals who provided the clean and sterile instruments and equipment that contributed to their care and recovery.

IAHCSMM and the thousands of members it serves together combine the best in human nature – the drive for excellence for the sake and wellbeing of others.

IAHCSMM timeline Revised 2