What should be done when there is a sterilization failure?

When a sterilization failure occurs, the most appropriate action to take is to quarantine the affected items and document the incident. This is critical for ensuring patient safety and maintaining the integrity of sterile processing practices. Quarantining the items prevents their use until the issue has been thoroughly investigated and resolved, thereby avoiding the risk of possible infection to patients.

Documenting the incident is equally important as it creates a record of the failure, which is essential for identifying trends, evaluating processes, and implementing corrective actions to prevent future failures. This documentation can also be vital for regulatory compliance and quality control purposes.

The other choices do not prioritize safety or best practices. Continuing to use affected items poses a significant risk of infection, while ignoring the failure completely disregards the importance of quality assurance in sterilization processes. Automatically re-sterilizing all items may not address the specific issue that caused the initial failure and could lead to wasted resources or further complications. Therefore, quarantining and documenting the incident ensures that a systematic approach is taken to resolve the issue before any items can be safely reused.