Susan Hutfless, PhD, SM, an assistant professor of medicine at Johns
Hopkins. Ignorance might be bliss, but Dr. Hutfless points out that in
this case it's preventing surgery center administrators from being
motivated to improve their infection control practices. The following
steps will prevent you from being lulled into the same false sense of
security about the cleanliness of your endoscopes.
1. Perform spot checks
Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) testing can be invaluable in helping
your reprocessing techs monitor how well they brush and flush the
working channels of scopes during the manual cleaning process.
ATP testing detects microorganisms that remain in the scope's chan-
nels and that must be removed before high-level disinfection can
occur. The tests can be done in a matter of minutes and provide
immediate results. Of course, every second counts in a busy GI cen-
ter and adding any steps to the scope reprocessing process could
impact overall efficiencies, so look for a testing product that's easy
to use, reliable and ready to read in minutes.
2. Consider disposables
Companies are developing disposable endoscopes with the aim of
essentially eliminating cross-contamination risks. Previous genera-
tions of disposable scopes lacked the clinical performance of conven-
tional models, but newer versions closely match the imaging capabili-
ties and performance of standard scopes (check out one option in
"Must-See Products at Digestive Disease Week" on page 22).
Single-use scopes are fantastic products, but in my opinion they're
not yet ready for routine use at this time, however, that will likely
change in the near future. In the meantime, I see disposable scopes
being ideally suited to supplement your standard scope inventory and
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