bioburden sit untreated for an hour or more, the bioburden is more
difficult to remove. Your reprocessing techs can benefit greatly from
knowing how long endoscopes have been sitting while waiting to be
reprocessed. Our idea: timers similar to the white buttons on turkeys
that pop up to let you know they're done. When point-of-use cleaning
begins at the bedside, a staff member presses the timer button that's
placed on top of the transport container. When the scope is scanned
and received in the decontamination area, techs know how long the
scope has been waiting for cleaning. If the time goes over an hour,
certain IFUs require extended cleaning time.
Read and react
If you're having problems with scope handling, transport and deliv-
ery, examine all of the moving parts in the process and identify defi-
ciencies, inconsistencies, breakdowns, or areas of confusion or mis-
information. Then develop a response plan using the information you
gather. Implementing a process like ours can improve the practices
at your facility.
OSM
Ms. Betti (diane.betti@baystatehealth.org) is director of inpatient surgery,
perianesthesia and sterile processing at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield,
Mass. Mr. Gudejko (michael.gudejko@baystatehealth.org) is manager of ster-
ile processing and central processing at Baystate Medical Center.
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