Outpatient Surgery Magazine - Subscribers

Backbreaker - Outpatient Surgery Magazine - April 2019

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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A P R I L 2 0 1 9 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 1 0 3 C leaning dirty endo- scopes is a high priori- ty, but the equally critical process of getting dirty scopes safely to the cleaning area — and keeping them clean on the way back to stor- age or the next procedure — is an area where most facilities can improve. The fact is, if you don't lock down the process of handling and transporting dirty scopes from the moment of withdrawal to the decontamination area, and then han- dling and transporting processed scopes to storage or directly to the next patient, you're introducing all kinds of opportunities for some- thing in the chain to go wrong, and increasing the possibility of infec- tion. Incidences of infection from dirty scopes are distressingly prevalent, so much so that the FDA has made it a priority area. According to a recent report, the problem could be even worse at ASCs and outpa- tient facilities — which often don't have dedicated infection control units — than it is in hospitals. A September 2018 study by Johns Hopkins researchers published in the British Society of Joe Paone | Senior Associate Editor On the Road with Dirty Scopes How you get scopes to and from the cleaning room is just as important as what happens there. • CARRY ON MY WAYWARD SCOPE Safely handling and transporting both dirty and clean scopes is a critical infection control function that sometimes doesn't get enough attention at surgical centers. Pamela Bevelhymer, RN, BSN, CNOR

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