Part of Josie's responsibility as a medical assistant is to run the autoclave as needed to sterilize instruments. Once a week, she includes a biological sterilization indicator with a load as a general quality control measure. Today, she notices that the biological indicator from yesterday's load is positive. What does this result mean?
A. The proper temperature was not reached
B. The pressure in the autoclave was not high enough
C. There was not enough steam in the autoclave
D. The water reservoir on the autoclave is running low
E. The items in that load are not sterile
E. The items in that load are not sterile
If the indicator is positive for bacterial growth, the items in the load were not completely sterilized. The biological indicator does not provide information about what went wrong in the sterilization.
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