Outpatient Surgery Magazine - Subscribers

No Guarantees - March 2017 - 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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• COLLATERAL DAMAGE The sprays and wipes your staff use to disinfectant OR equipment could be causing hidden damage. M A R C H 2 0 1 7 • O U T PA T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T • 1 2 5 Corrosive Cleaners? Incompatible sprays and wipes can erode plastic equipment. H ere's a scary thought. What if every time your turnover team sprays or wipes down a piece of equipment, the liquid disin- fectant erodes the device's plastic components, over time causing the plastic to crack, craze, turn brittle and to eventually fail — all because the cleaner wasn't compatible with the plastic. Here in our lab at ECRI Institute, we've investigated many cases of so- called environmental stress cracking from our hospital clients and have heard reports of several others. In one case, a cleaning solution corrod- ed the plastic so badly that the device's wires were exposed. In another, the liquid disinfectant used to wipe down the surgical robot after each use eroded the plastic arm so severely that it looked like someone had taken a hammer to it. Infection Prevention Jaime Schlorff

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