Audit the barbershop sterilisation and sharps routine before a council inspection

What is going on

The council environmental health officer will inspect the Geelong barbershop on Tuesday 22 September. The Head Barber has asked for a full self-audit of the cleaning, sterilisation and sharps routine before the visit. The incident register already holds a needle stick from a razor blade removed without the blade tool and a burn from the hot towel steamer. The steriliser log, the pouch drawer, the sharps containers at each station and the clipper disinfectant all need checking against the written procedure. Anything that can be fixed must be fixed on the spot and anything that cannot must be logged.

Your brief

Audit the barbershop against the Instrument Cleaning, Sterilisation and Sharps Procedure and the Infection Control Policy, correct what you can, log the rest in the register with owners, and give the Head Barber a one-page findings list ready for the inspection.

Work through it

You do not need to do it all. Doing a few of these will show you what the work is like. Your ticks and notes stay on this device.

• Read the Instrument Cleaning, Sterilisation and Sharps Procedure and the Infection Control Policy and build a checklist of every requirement that applies to the barbershop.
• Check the steriliser log entries for the last four weeks for cycle number, load contents, indicator result and initials, and list any missing or incomplete entries.
• Inspect the pouch drawer for pouch dates, seal condition and indicator colour, and remove and reprocess any pouch that is out of date or damaged.
• Inspect each station's sharps container for mounting height, fill level and lid condition, and replace any container above the line following the procedure.
• Confirm the clipper blade disinfectant and the razor handle sterilisation routine match the procedure, and check the single-use blade stock line in the Stock and Product Register.
• Deliver one hot towel shave or beard service during the audit period using a single-use blade and the blade tool, recording the reprocessing steps you completed afterwards.
• Enter each uncorrected finding in the WHS and Infection Control Incident Register as a Hazard with an owner and status, and close the earlier needle stick and burn entries only if the corrective actions are complete.
• Write a one-page findings list for the Head Barber that separates items fixed on the spot from items still open.

What someone in this role would produce

• Completed audit checklist with results
• Incident register entries for open findings
• Stock register check on single-use blades
• One-page findings list for the Head Barber