J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 9 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 2 1
E
ndoscopes are complex instruments with complex
reprocessing requirements, but cross-contamination
risks during GI procedures are minimal, right? Not nec-
essarily. A recent Johns Hopkins study showed that
infection rates within a week of upper endoscopies and
colonoscopies performed at some ambulatory surgical centers were
100 times higher than previously believed. The infection rate of a rou-
tine colonoscopy was thought to be somewhere in the neighborhood
of 1 in a million. According to the study, however, the rate is actually
closer to 1 in 1,000.
Surgery center staffs are often unaware that their patients suffer
serious infections after they leave their facilities, says study author
James Collins, BS, RN, CNOR | Cleveland, Ohio
No More Dirty Endoscopes
Enhance the performance of your reprocessing team and reduce
the likelihood of human errors that could impact patient safety.
• IMPORTANT JOB Contaminated endoscopes introduce microorganisms to a patient's GI tract that spread to adjacent tissue
or organs.
Pamela
Bevelhymer,
RN,
BSN,
CNOR
