4 4 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • O C T O B E R 2 0 1 8
W
e're on a
mission to
eliminate
high-level
disinfection.
Anyone who has seen closeups
of the crud, corrosion and con-
taminants left behind on a
reprocessed scope knows that
we need to shift from GI scope
disinfection to terminal steriliza-
tion. If we here at the Altru
Health System in Grand Forks,
N.D., have any say in the matter,
that shift will happen sooner
than later. A lot sooner.
A few months ago, we became
the first-ever facility to sterilize
GI scopes. It was a big deal, for sure, not just for our central sterile
department, but for every reprocessing room in every surgery center
and hospital. A new low-temperature sterilizer from TSO
3
made this
possible. The Sterizone VP4 uses dual sterilants — vaporized hydro-
gen peroxide (H
2
O
2
) and ozone (O
3
) — to achieve terminal steriliza-
tion of heat- and moisture-sensitive medical devices. In the same
amount of time it takes to high-level disinfect, we can terminally ster-
ilize multi-channeled flexible endoscopes (with a maximum of 4 chan-
Jenni Gibbs | Grand Forks, N.D.
The Shift From Disinfection to Sterilization
We overhauled our GI scope reprocessing process in pursuit
of our ultimate goal: to eliminate high-level disinfection.
•
SHIFT
TO
STERILIZATION
The
Altru
Health
System
in
Grand
Forks,
N.D.,
is
the
first
U.S.
facility
to
terminally
sterilize
GI
scopes
with
a
low-temperature
sterilizer.
E N D O S C O P E R E P R O C E S S I N G
Altru
Health
System
