an added level of
understanding of the
task at hand.
When AR is imple-
mented as a system, it
could link up with
instrument track and
trace systems, surgical
inventory, and all the
pieces of automated
equipment with the
goal to make operators
work more efficiently
and improve overall
quality.
The return of EtO
EtO sterilization is making a big comeback, thanks to continuing
efforts to solve the inherent challenges of reprocessing difficult-to-
clean flexible endoscopes. The 2015 outbreak of Carbapenem-resis-
tant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) that was linked to contaminated duo-
denoscopes used at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Medical Center served as a flash point for the resurgence of interest in
EtO. The sudden outbreak of CRE-contaminated endoscopes became
a public health crisis in California and drew widespread national
attention.
When researchers looked at those scopes, they found that they had
been reprocessed correctly, but the harmful bacteria still lived on.
Through that research, we learned the facilities that used EtO were
able to kill the bacteria during the sterilization process, stopping the
A P R I L 2 0 1 9 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 5 3
Facilities must store, track
and process thousands of
instruments in a single day.
Pamela
Bevelhymer,
RN,
BSN,
CNOR
