Storage cabinets with air circulat-
ing inside ensures scopes return
to the procedure room bone dry.
If the budget permits, more
advanced drying cabinets let you
attach the lumens of each scope
to a drying unit that blows air
straight into the scope. They're as
expensive as they are advanced,
however, costing $16,000 to
$20,000 — 4 to 5 times the cost of
a traditional cabinet.
Does air circulating through a
storage cabinet keep scopes suf-
ficiently dry? Current evidence
suggests it does. But if you're a
very busy, high-volume GI center,
the more advanced and most
expensive cabinets would let you
turn over scopes faster and have them dried in the most effective
way for your patients.
A final note about proper endoscope care: These devices are frag-
ile and should be transported back and forth from the procedure
room to the reprocessing area in plastic bins. The bins aren't
sealed, but they are closed so there's no chance of staff or patients
being exposed to infectious organisms while the scopes are en
route.
Investing in high-end reprocessing technology is certainly more
costly, but better overall operations will reduce cross contamina-
tion risks for your patients. The success of your entire new venture
F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 6 2
• BLOW DRIED Scopes can be stored in traditional cabinets
or high-end models with dryers that direct air into the lumens
of each scope.
Pamela
Bevelhymer,
RN,
BSN,
CNOR
