Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Her Loss, Their Gain - October 2019 - Subscribe to Outpatient Surgery Magazine

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

Issue link: http://outpatientsurgery.uberflip.com/i/1174852

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 95 of 126

damaged by the graspers or snares that are passed through during procedures. These defects can become traps for debris and cannot be seen with the naked eye. The dilemma of not being able to see inside the channel of a device that was made for visualizing channels within the human body is rather ironic. Borescopes, a relatively new visual inspection technology in device reprocessing, can be used to identify damage or debris along the inside of an endoscope's channels. A borescope is basically a flexible scope used to see inside a flexible scope. There are a few different models on the market today, with varying lengths, image quality and price points. They're not outrageously expensive ($1,000 to $3,000), so purchasing one for your department should not be a barrier to per- forming this work. You can run into trouble if your reprocessing team is not trained or educated to use a borescope and interpret what they're seeing. You should work with the borescope manufacturer to provide an in-ser- vice and training materials. Instructions and visual aids should be posted and available where the inspection takes place. If this is a new process for your department, ask your endoscope manufacturer to secure loaner equipment or expedite repairs. When implementing new testing or verification programs, it's common to discover problems with a high percentage of the fleet of devices. 2. Automated leak testers Leak testing is important because it's used to identify areas of the scope that are damaged. Identifying leaks can prevent additional dam- age caused by fluid invasion during subsequent reprocessing and, most importantly, prevent fluid harbored in damaged areas from cross-contaminating patients. Scopes that fail leak tests can have damage that was difficult to spot, 9 6 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • O C T O B E R 2 0 1 9

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Outpatient Surgery Magazine - Her Loss, Their Gain - October 2019 - Subscribe to Outpatient Surgery Magazine