Study by domain
Spaulding Classification System: Sort 20 Devices
Tap the category the CDC puts each device in, then read the sentence that says so. Twenty devices a round, no account, nothing saved off your phone.
Sort the tray
Pick a round
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Keys 1, 2 and 3 answer. Enter or Space advances from the feedback state.
The short answer
Spaulding's scheme sorts patient care items by the risk of the tissue they touch. The CDC applies it in three levels: critical items enter sterile tissue or the vascular system and must be sterile, semicritical items contact mucous membranes or nonintact skin and need high-level disinfection, and noncritical items touch intact skin only.
Three rounds to choose from. The full tray is 20 devices across the three categories, the short one is five, and the tricky ones plays only with the devices the guideline itself argues about: the scopes that enter sterile tissue, the probe that changes category depending on where it goes, and the tank that touches skin that is not intact and stays noncritical anyway.
Your best round and your longest run are kept in this browser only. There is no account to make, no email to leave, and nothing is uploaded when you share a result.
The device pictures are generated illustrations, not photographs of real instruments. They are there to help you recognise a shape, and they are not evidence of anything. Every classification on this page rests on the quoted sentence underneath it, which comes from the CDC guideline linked with each answer.
The three categories, in the CDC's words
The 30 devices in the game come from the two pages of the guideline linked under every answer, read on . Nothing is classified here that the guideline does not classify itself.
Critical
Anything that enters sterile tissue or the bloodstream. The guideline names surgical instruments, cardiac and urinary catheters, implants, and ultrasound probes used in sterile body cavities. These items are bought sterile or sterilized, most often with steam.
Semi-critical
Anything that touches mucous membranes or skin that is not intact. Respiratory and anesthesia equipment, some endoscopes, laryngoscope blades, cystoscopes and diaphragm fitting rings sit here, and high-level disinfection is the floor.
Non-critical
Anything that touches intact skin and no mucous membrane. The guideline splits these into patient care items such as bedpans, blood pressure cuffs and crutches, and environmental surfaces such as bed rails and bedside tables.
Who was Spaulding?
The CDC opens its own guideline with him: More than 30 years ago, Earle H. Spaulding devised a rational approach to disinfection and sterilization of patient-care items and equipment.
His idea was that the level of processing follows the risk of the contact, not the price or the complexity of the instrument, and the scheme has been kept and refined ever since.
What this game leaves out
A device only enters the pool when the guideline names it and the sentence that names it carries the category. Five groups the guideline mentions are deliberately absent:
- Dental instruments. The guideline reports the American Dental Association's classification for these, not its own. Indirect attribution is not a citation.
- Transesophageal echocardiography probes and flexible cystoscopes as named on the equipment page. That page calls them items that contact mucous membranes without attaching the word semicritical, so the sentence does not carry the classification.
- Scissors, hemostats and clamps. Named inside a hemodialysis passage. Out of that context the line would mislead a student about instruments that are usually critical.
- Mouthpieces and spirometry tubing. The guideline discusses them as past practice, not as a current classification.
- Tracheostomy tubes. Named in a home care passage with no Spaulding category attached.
Ready for exam-style questions?
Sorting 3 rounds of devices tells you whether the scheme has landed. Answering questions under the same conditions as the exam is a different skill, and the free test is scored domain by domain so it tells you where you actually lose points.
Questions people ask
What are critical items in the Spaulding classification?
Items that enter sterile tissue or the vascular system, which the CDC says must be sterile because any microbial contamination could transmit disease. The guideline lists surgical instruments, cardiac and urinary catheters, implants, and ultrasound probes used in sterile body cavities.
Are endoscopes critical or semi-critical?
A flexible endoscope that travels a mucous lined tract is semicritical, and the CDC keeps it there even when it is used with sterile biopsy forceps, provided high-level disinfection is achieved. A scope that enters normally sterile tissue is a different case and belongs with the critical items.
Why are laparoscopes critical if many are only high-level disinfected?
Because the category follows the tissue, not the practice. The CDC places laparoscopes and arthroscopes in the critical category and says they should be sterilized before each use, and that if this is not feasible they should receive at least high-level disinfection. The guideline calls the gap a controversy, not a reclassification.
What are the three levels of disinfection?
High-level, intermediate-level and low-level. Semicritical items minimally require high-level disinfection, and noncritical items are handled with a low-level disinfectant registered with the EPA. Sterilization sits above all three and is what critical items require.