When Equipment Meets Infrastructure: A Sterile Processing Alliance

A Getinge and SteriPro partnership signals a growing move toward centralized sterile processing to ease staffing strain and boost compliance

26 Nov 2025

Hospitals across the United States are rethinking one of their most essential but least visible jobs: cleaning and preparing surgical instruments.

A new partnership between Getinge and SteriPro International is helping push that shift forward. The collaboration reflects a wider change in how health systems manage sterile processing as they juggle staffing shortages, rising surgical demand, and tighter oversight from regulators.

Sterile processing rarely makes headlines, yet it sits at the heart of patient safety. Instruments must be cleaned, disinfected, inspected, and sterilized with precision. Still, many hospitals struggle to keep these departments fully staffed and up to date. Technician vacancies are hard to fill. Workloads keep climbing. Older facilities need expensive upgrades that compete with other capital priorities.

Industry surveys, including those from the Healthcare Sterile Processing Association, continue to flag workforce shortages and high turnover. For many hospitals, the pressure is constant.

That is where centralized, off-site models enter the picture.

Getinge provides the equipment and systems used to clean and sterilize instruments. SteriPro International operates large reprocessing centers that serve multiple hospitals. Together, they are expanding centralized facilities built around standardized workflows and digital tracking systems designed to handle high volumes with consistency.

For hospital leaders, the appeal is practical. Off-site processing can limit the need for major on-site renovations and help absorb swings in surgical volume. Those swings have become more pronounced as elective procedures rebound and aging populations drive demand for complex surgeries.

Centralized centers also offer tighter quality controls and clearer documentation. That matters as accrediting bodies place greater emphasis on traceability and compliance.

Executives frame the partnership as a response to real constraints. SteriPro points to the ability to scale without sacrificing quality. Getinge highlights data tools that improve visibility and reduce the risk of error.

The bigger story is about focus. As margins tighten, hospitals are directing resources toward direct patient care and relying more on specialized partners for support functions. What was once a backroom task is becoming a coordinated, systemwide service.

Sterile processing may remain out of sight for patients. But its evolution is quickly becoming central to how hospitals plan for the future.