WA · Sterilization compliance
Washington Dental Sterilization Compliance Requirements
A summary of Washington's sterilization-monitoring rules for dental practices — the enforcing agency, the biological-monitoring cadence, and the primary citation.
Quick answer
- BI cadence
- Record retention
- Enforcement agency
- Washington State Dental Quality Assurance Commission (Dept. of Health)
- Primary citation
- WAC 246-817-655(4)
Set by the state's own rule
Stated in the rule
Biological monitoring (spore testing)
Washington’s own rule requires sterilizers to be tested by biological spore test method, as recommended by the manufacturer, at least weekly when scheduled patients are treated, with immediate manufacturer-recommended remedial action on a positive result. Documentation is kept five years, stated directly in the rule.
Worth flagging: 5-year retention is the longest explicit period in our review. Documentation may be a log (dates and who tested) or independent-lab reports.
Federal guidance applied in Washington
A native Washington rule with its own numbers
Even where state rules are silent on a specific point, the CDC's 2003 Guidelines for Infection Control in Dental Health-Care Settings are the most widely used professional reference. They are guidance rather than law unless a state's rule adopts them — many do by reference — and a board may treat departures from them as unprofessional conduct.
Records commonly kept on file
Whatever a state's stated minimum, these are the sterilization records dental practices commonly maintain:
- A weekly (or per-state-cadence) biological-indicator log with matching control results, lot numbers, and expiration dates
- A per-cycle log identifying sterilizer, operator, and chemical-indicator result
- Documented response to any positive spore test (recall procedure, retest result, root cause)
- Sterilizer maintenance and service records (preventive maintenance + repair)
- A list of staff authorized to operate sterilizers, with training completion dates
- A written infection-control plan referencing CDC 2003 guidelines
How Cuspo handles Washington compliance
- Captures BI tests on the cadence that applies to your practice, with matching control results and lot tracking
- Auto-generates an audit-ready PDF of your sterilization records over any date range
- Triggers a documented remediation workflow on every positive spore test
- Maintains tamper-evident audit trail of who logged what and when