2 0 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 M A Y 2 0 1 6
B
reakdowns in endoscope reprocessing
are making headlines seemingly every
day. Take Baystate Noble Hospital, for
example. The Westfield, Mass., hospi-
tal found itself in the news last January
after it was forced to alert nearly 300 colonoscopy
patients that they may have been exposed to HIV, hepati-
tis B and hepatitis C. Why? Because the hospital's repro-
cessing staff wasn't trained on proper high-level disinfec-
tion techniques for endoscopes. Many of those patients
have filed lawsuits against the hospital.
Without a standardized practice, how many more
The New Standard in Endoscope
A new national guideline offers
clear advice for proper high-
level disinfection.
Nancy Chobin, RN, CSPM
Lebanon, N.J.
Download ANSI/AAMI ST91:2015 for
$195 at osmag.net/TDa7rX.
Pamela
Bevelhymer,
RN,
BSN
