1 6 • O U T PA 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 8
Moreover, the study
took place over the
course of 7 months,
and during that time,
members of the
research team
dropped in for 9
unannounced audits.
Not a single deficien-
cy was seen. Staff
carefully followed all
the recommended
steps thoroughly and timely, and yet their scopes still showed signs of
microbial growth, visible irregularities, discoloration and debris in
channels.
It's particularly bad news that their scopes still fared so poorly, but
there's a silver lining to the troubling report: It should increase your
awareness of just how challenging endoscope reprocessing is to get
right and hammer home the importance of constantly monitoring the
integrity and cleanliness of your scopes.
Plenty of problems
The surgery center was using 17 endoscopes when the study was initi-
ated. Over the 7-month study period, they also brought in 5 loaners. In
all, those 22 scopes included 7 adult colonoscopes, 8 pediatric colono-
scopes and 7 gastroscopes. All were less than 2½ years old and most
had been used between 400 and 500 times.
For the study, 11 of the scopes were designated as an intervention
group and were given extra-special attention. Along with the usual bed-
side precleaning, leak-testing and manual cleaning, the intervention
• DIRTY JOB Provide your staff with the tools they need to properly care for notoriously
tough-to-clean flexible endoscopes.
