stored before use. "Because of this lack of consensus, some facilities
choose to always reprocess stored scopes right before they're used
again, just to be on the safe side," says Dr. Kyle. That might not be feasi-
ble for some locations, but it's a good practice if you can do it.
6. Define a policy that's explicit and inclusive.
It truly takes
a village to ensure proper handling and transport of scopes in your
facility. You should assemble an interdisciplinary team that includes
endoscopists, processing staff, perioperative and endoscopy regis-
tered nurses, infection preventionists and any other personnel
involved in the use and processing of endoscopes to collectively
develop an explicit, end-to-end policy.
Dr. Kyle suggests you ask these tough questions about transport and
handling of scopes from the point of use to decontamination when
you're putting that policy together:
• Is point-of-use treatment happening correctly?
• Does the team have the tools they need to perform each step cor-
rectly?
• What is your communication process when transporting and han-
dling soiled endoscopes?
• Does your team know when they need to use "delayed processing"
procedures when too much time has passed between scope use and
cleaning; how do they know how much time has elapsed?
• How confident is your team that the scopes are processed effec-
tively; how do they know?
• Does the physician know how his handling of the endoscope
affects processing, for example, the use of simethicone?
• What are the storage conditions like; does the storage cabinet
have HEPA-filtered air, but it's not forced through the channels?
• Where are the cabinets located, and how often are they opened, and
1 1 2 • 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 P R I L 2 0 1 9
