Meet: Traci Major, MHA, CSPM, CSPD, CER | Children’s Health
At Children’s Health (Dallas), the transition to Tristel ULT for high-level disinfection of ultrasound transducers began with a practical obstacle: the system already had approximately 20 vaporized hydrogen peroxide (VHP) units in place. Moving away from that installed base required more than enthusiasm for a new product; it required a disciplined case for change.
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Traci Major, MHA, director of perioperative services and sterile processing, HLD, and sterilization, helped build that case. Children’s Health faced challenges common to many organizations using automated reprocessing systems: high capital and consumable costs, disinfection not performed at the point of care, and workflow inefficiencies stemming from probe transport and processing delays.
The organization’s drivers for change included inefficient workflows, expiring consumables, and a burdensome paper-based documentation process. To justify the transition, leadership needed a clear comparison between the current and future workflows, a cost model, and evidence that the new approach aligned with patient safety, compliance expectations, and staff workflow.
“We needed something that could high-level disinfect but be more flexible and efficient at the point of care,” says Major. “Enabling staff to take care of patients efficiently is important, and Tristel ULT hits that mark.”
Major’s team did not move directly to broad implementation. Children’s Health first conducted pilot trials in interventional radiology and echocardiography. The trials gave staff a chance to test the process in real-world settings and gave leadership internal proof of concept. User feedback was strongly positive overall, though a few users expressed a minor concern about the bleach-like odor of chlorine dioxide. The system’s infection preventionists were fully engaged and supported the decision to move forward.
The broader rollout across Children’s Health emphasized hands-on training, a simple workflow, mobile point-of-care use, and digital documentation through the 3T app. The biggest operational wins included a two-minute bedside turnaround, reduced documentation burden, elimination of paper logs, and improved staff efficiency in high-volume areas.
Major describes the greatest impact as occurring in high-volume procedural areas, where faster turnaround has immediate workflow value. Being able to complete the disinfection process at the point of care with just a two-minute wait time enabled probes to be returned to service quickly, so staff could move on to the next patient. For Children’s Health, Tristel ULT helped integrate efficiency, documentation, and safe patient care into a single practical implementation strategy.
Meet: Jennifer Griest, BSN, RN | Mercy Hospital
When Mercy (Springfield) decided to evaluate Tristel ULT, the organization was looking for more than just a new disinfectant. It needed a high-level disinfection process that could work across a large, geographically dispersed health system without slowing care, complicating staff workflows, or creating new compliance vulnerabilities.
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Jennifer Griest, BSN, RN, infection prevention specialist, helped lead the rollout of chlorine dioxide foam across 10 Mercy locations in Southwest Missouri, including the system’s main hospital, breast clinic, family medicine clinic, imaging services clinics, maternal-fetal medicine clinics, specialty clinics, and urology clinic. The effort gave Mercy a real-world test of whether high-level disinfection at the point of care could be implemented consistently across a range of very different clinical environments.
Mercy’s interest in the method grew out of practical concerns about automated vaporized hydrogen peroxide (VHP) systems. Legacy systems created workflow inefficiencies, needed dedicated space and utilities, required maintenance contracts that were coming up for renewal, and raised concerns about probe damage. Cost pressures added urgency. At the same time, a few Mercy facilities had already reported success with chlorine dioxide, giving leaders a reason to examine the approach more closely.
Griest’s team addressed early questions directly. Stakeholders wanted to know whether chlorine dioxide was effective enough and whether staff would be able to perform the manual process correctly. Confidence grew through FDA clearance, supporting standards and publications, the foam’s visibility, and audits that validated compliance with high-level disinfection requirements.
Mercy also gathered feedback from leaders and users. Responding leaders reported alignment with infection prevention standards, ease of integration into workflow, effective competency training, and measurable efficiency gains. More than 90% of leaders reported time savings and efficiency improvements.
Staff experience evolved over time. Some users were initially hesitant to shift from an automated process to a manual one, but training and real-world use helped build confidence. “It’s so much easier to get staff to buy in and to implement new protocols and new workflows when they truly understand the why behind it,” says Griest.
In the end, Mercy found that the chlorine dioxide method supported faster room turnover, simplified the user environment, improved documentation, and reduced equipment-related concerns associated with the prior process. “Probe repairs had been a recurring issue with our prior HLD process,” Griest says. “Since switching to Tristel, we have not had probes sent out for repair due to HLD-related cord damage.” The rollout showed that point-of-care HLD with Tristel ULT could be clinically sound, operationally feasible, and scalable across a multisite system.
Meet: Nikki Roberston, MHA, (BS) RDMS, RVA | University of Iowa Health Care
For the University of Iowa Health Care System (Iowa City), adoption of Tristel ULT for high-level disinfection of ultrasound transducers came under unusually high-stakes conditions. The system’s OB/GYN department transitioned from vaporized hydrogen peroxide (VHP) to chlorine dioxide foam (ClO2) immediately before undergoing a Joint Commission survey, a moment when any weakness in process, training, or documentation would certainly have been exposed.
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Nikki Robertson, MHA, RDMS, RVT, ultrasound services manager for OB/GYN, helped guide the department through the transition. The setting was complex: multiple inpatient and outpatient sites, high volumes of transvaginal ultrasound procedures, and heavy daily reliance on ultrasound-guided procedures. Maintenance contracts for the department’s VHP units were also approaching renewal, at high cost, prompting the department to switch to chlorine dioxide.
The Joint Commission’s survey became a real-world stress test. Surveyors had expected to review automated VHP units but instead encountered a manual process using chlorine dioxide at the point of care. They observed the entire workflow, including the step-by-step disinfection process, staff execution, and documentation. According to Robertson, the surveyors were “very interested” because they had heard of chlorine dioxide but had not previously seen it used. The surveyors’ response, Robertson said, validated the department’s preparation and documentation.
“The lead surveyor actually called us out by name in front of everyone,” says Robertson. “She was so impressed. This is the cutting edge of how we’re going to do transvaginal cleaning, and we had everything documented appropriately. Gold stars all around.”
The department’s success rested on more than the disinfectant itself. Three factors helped the process withstand scrutiny: standardized execution, digital documentation via the 3T app, and workflow features that reduced opportunities for user error. Digital traceability by probe, user, and patient helped replace the vulnerability of manual logs with a more reliable documentation trail.
Operational benefits reinforced the compliance story. The new process eliminated the need for dedicated space and utilities for the VHP units, saved approximately $60,000 per year in maintenance costs, eliminated heat-related probe damage associated with VHP processing, and enabled high-level disinfection at the point of care.
Robertson’s experience shows how a department can move from legacy reprocessing to a point-of-care model while improving both audit readiness and workflow. The result was not merely that Tristel ULT passed review. It also gave the department a cleaner, more traceable, and more efficient process for managing high-volume ultrasound probe disinfection.