6. Should you culture scopes after reprocessing? Consider instituting a cul-
turing regimen. If you have sufficient inventory to culture every scope
after reprocessing (and can wait 48 hours for results), you'll be able to
achieve the highest level of confidence possible. If resources don't
allow for such an exhaustive approach, consider culturing on a weekly
basis, perhaps Friday afternoons, so that cultured organisms can incu-
bate over the weekend, when scope use is typically at its lowest. If
that's not feasible, consider culturing one-quarter of your scopes every
week, on a rotating basis. That way, the entire inventory will be cul-
tured each month.
OSM
J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 6 • O U T PA T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T • 9 9
Mr. Lavanchy (clavanchy@ecri.org) is engineering director of the Health
Devices Group at ECRI Institute in Plymouth Meeting, Pa.