before hanging endoscopes in a conventional storage cabinet.
• Endoscope drying cabinets. These specially designed units let you hook
up endoscope ports to a manifold that pushes HEPA-filtered air through the
scope's channels and circulates the air around the scope's exterior.
Dr. Ofstead says applying forced air for at least 10 minutes or placing
scopes in a drying cabinet for at least an hour ensures channels are
properly dried.
Nobody wants to extend the time it takes to reprocess scopes, but
drying technology might be worthwhile, says S. Dwayne Taylor, PA-s,
CST, CFA, CRCST, CIS, CHL, CFER, ACE, surgical services manager
at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center in Las Vegas, Nev.
Mr. Taylor's staff used to hang-dry endoscopes in a conventional
storage unit, but recently added an endoscope drying cabinet.
Typically, scopes are left in the cabinet for up to an hour. When the
scopes are dry, they're moved to a storage cabinet that continuously
circulates filtered air around the chamber.
"Considering the [cross-contamination] problems we've seen through-
out the nation, I support using a HEPA-filtered drying cabinet to decrease
the likelihood of channels becoming contaminated," says Mr. Taylor.
There's no clear consensus on how long a scope can be stored
before it must again undergo high-level disinfection, but the Society of
Gastroenterology Nurses and Associates recommends a maximum
storage time of 7 days — that's how long scopes are permitted to hang
at Sunrise Hospital. Mr. Whelan suggests basing your facility's hang
time on such factors as the types of endoscopes you use and proce-
dures you perform, case volume, and scope inventory.
"Until research provides clearer results, you should perform your own
risk assessment," he adds.
Drying double-checks
To test the effectiveness of Sunrise Hospital's scope-drying protocols,
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