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er care of their devices, but will no longer conduct competency assessments.
So who in your facility can perform competencies? Certified managers of ster-
ile processing departments can do so for a departmental supervisor, who can
then conduct competencies for the frontline staff. Keep in mind that CMS and
accreditation surveyors are now looking at who's performing the competencies,
and will ask what qualifies them to do so.
7. Cleanliness testing
The FDA suggests facilities sterilize duodensocopes, but most facilities don't have
access to ethylene oxide, which is needed for sterilization. Some experts suggest
reprocessing scopes with liquid chemical sterilization or high-level disinfecting
scopes twice to limit cross-contamination risks. There's a problem with all 3 sug-
gestions: Endoscope reprocessing must be based on proper cleaning, which is
needed to ensure proper disinfection. ST91 suggests testing the effectiveness of
your staff's endoscope cleaning at least weekly, but why not check every scope?
There are several options available to do so, including a lumen inspection system
that lets you visually confirm that the inside of a scope has been properly cleaned.
With another on-the-spot test, you pour sterile water though the endoscope's biop-
sy channel, swab the channel with the kit's probe and drop the swab into a vial of
activating agent. If the swab changes color, blood or protein residue remain in the
channel and the scope must be reprocessed again. The test costs about a dollar.
Isn't being able to sleep at night worth that much?
OSM
Ms. Chobin (nancy.chobin@att.net) is president of
Chobin & Associates Consulting, a sterile processing
consulting and training company in Lebanon, N.J.
