Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Special Edition: Surgical Construction - February 2021 - 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.

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2 6 • S U P P L E M E N T T O O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 1 Dividing the space Begin your facility's design where costly flexible endoscopes are reprocessed and readied for proce- dures. Make sure the reprocessing room has the proper space to clean, disinfect, dry and store scopes without the possibility of cross contamination. Reprocessing rooms should be comprised of three separate areas for manual cleaning, high-level disinfecting and drying and storage. The size of each area depends on the number of physicians in the center and the volume of procedures being done each day; the key is to design a space that allows a one- direction flow from work spaces where contaminated scopes are treated to separate work areas where clean scopes are dried and stored. Ideally, you should dedicate 100 square feet for each space dedicated to the manual cleaning, high-level disinfecting, and drying and storing of scopes. Whatever square footage is left after designing this critical area can be divvied up for the rest of the facility. After being involved with the planning and designing of GI centers for the past few decades, I can tell you the trifecta of reasons for build- ing yourself a new, bigger facility — or renovating and expanding your current space — comes down to reimbursement rates, steadily increasing case volumes and skilled physicians who have the ability to perform a wide- range of procedures. What types of cases currently fill your procedure rooms? How many colonoscopy screenings do you schedule each year? Are your physicians performing advanced procedures, such as endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatog- raphy (ERCP)? ERCP is a proce- dure that requires a great amount of skill to per- form, making it a significant revenue-driver — and a good reason to upgrade your current space. Adding it requires a C-arm, which means you'll need more floor space in procedure rooms. Older rooms in some HOPDs and dedicated GI centers are only about 200 square feet to 250 square feet, which must feel like working in a closet. Think about it — if you have two to three people in the room, plus the patient, and all the equipment, you have very little room to maneuver. Ideally, GI suites CLEAN START Reprocessing rooms should be a top priority during the design phase. Pamela Bevelhymer

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