CRCST Practice Exam

To achieve the highest level of assurance, monitor every load with:

1. Control BI at the beginning of the week

2. Randomly chosen BI PCDs

3. External chemical indicator

4. BI PCD

The correct answer is: BI PCD

To achieve the highest level of assurance, monitoring every load with a Biological Indicator (BI) Process Challenge Device (PCD) is the most reliable method. BI PCDs contain live bacterial spores that are more challenging to kill than typical organisms, making them an excellent tool for validating the effectiveness of the sterilization process. Monitoring every load with BI PCDs ensures that the sterilization process consistently achieves the desired level of sterilization, providing healthcare facilities with the highest level of assurance that their instruments are safe for patient use. The other options are not as effective as using BI PCDs. Control BI at the beginning of the week may not provide real-time monitoring for every load. Randomly chosen BI PCDs may not ensure that every load is consistently monitored. External chemical indicators only provide information on the physical conditions of the sterilization process, not the actual microbial kill. Therefore, the most effective choice to achieve the highest level of assurance is monitoring every load with BI PCDs.