residual debris and damage
that can harbor future
microbes are often invisible to
the naked eye. But more and
more sterile processing
departments are using clean-
ing verification tools such as
handheld lighted magnifiers,
tabletop microscopes and
borescopes that let them
examine and test areas that
are difficult or impossible for
the human eye to see into
directly. Could your facility
benefit from greater magnifi-
cation, X-ray vision and high-
tech microbial monitoring dur-
ing visual inspections?
Standardizing a manual process
Of all the types of medical device reprocessing,
flexible scope cleaning is one of the most manually intensive.
Unfortunately, with manual processes can come variability, which is
the chief threat to repeatable quality outcomes. This variability is
often tied to human factors involved in everything from bedside clean-
ing and speed of transport to the reprocessing room to how techs
manipulate their cleaning brushes and how closely they visually
inspect the distal tip before disinfection.
The first key to creating a thorough scope cleaning verification pro-
gram is to develop a standard cleaning process and defined verification
4 0 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • A U G U S T 2 0 1 8
• A LOOK INSIDE Internal borescopes that are long and flexible
enough to inspect the length of many large-diameter endoscopes
allow for remote visual inspections in areas where it is difficult or
impossible for the human eye to see into directly.
