Sterile Processing Technician job description

Hours before an incision, someone has decontaminated the instruments, inspected them for wear, assembled the tray, run the autoclave, and staged the set for the room. BLS files the occupation as medical equipment preparers, one of the few it counts without a full Occupational Outlook Handbook profile behind it, so the figures here come off the Bureau's data tables and the O*NET summary rather than a Handbook page. Median pay was $47,700 in May 2025, spread from $36,410 at the tenth percentile up to $69,950 at the ninetieth. BLS counted 79,900 of these jobs that year and projects 11 percent growth by 2035, about 10,700 openings a year.

Core Duties and Responsibilities

Steam autoclaves are the center of it, and every load is logged: what went in, what came out, what maintenance was done, what the sterilizer test results said. Around that, technicians clean instruments, build routine and specialty trays and fill special requests, examine equipment for leaks and worn or loose parts, report anything defective, watch gauges for malfunctions, confirm that sterile stock has not gone out of date, keep inventory and reorder, and stock crash carts. Respirators, hospital beds, and oxygen and dialysis equipment go through the sterilizers, aerators, and washers as well.

Common Skills and Technologies

Critical thinking, monitoring, and quality control analysis take the top skill ratings, with troubleshooting close behind, which describes a job where catching a fault before it reaches a patient is the entire point. The software is administrative: MEDITECH, eClinicalWorks EHR, Kronos Workforce Timekeeper on the shift clock, Microsoft SharePoint and Office, and the inventory and supply chain systems that track what is on the shelf. The hardware is the autoclave, the washer, the aerator, and the tray.

Education, Training, and Career Path

This is one of the shorter entries into hospital work, and the three biggest answers in the survey show why: 44 percent said a new hire needs a high school diploma, 31 percent a postsecondary certificate, and 15 percent a bachelor's. O*NET Job Zone Two, some preparation needed, gives a new technician somewhere between a few months and a year on the floor with experienced staff. Certification lives in the title itself, and CRCST, certified registered central service technician, is among the job names O*NET records for people doing this work.

Sources: O*NET 30.0, 31-9093.00 Medical Equipment Preparers, https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/31-9093.00. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, 31-9093, https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes319093.htm.