The tubing is connected to the scope's biopsy channel, air/water chan-
nel and other channels. HEPA-filtered air flows continuously into each
of the channels to keep internal lumens dry, which goes a long way to
preventing moisture from forming that increases cross-contamination
risks. Storage cabinets with integrated drying technology are an
advancement over storage units that simply circulate air throughout the
chamber and are light years better than simply hanging scopes in con-
ventional storage cabinets and relying on gravity alone to keep internal
channels free of moisture.
Newer cabinets also feature smart storage features. An employee
must scan a barcode on a scope to load it into the storage unit. The
cabinet's screen confirms the hook number on which the scope has
been placed. Once the tubing is connected to the cabinet's airflow, the
door is closed and locked. The process is repeated when removing a
scope so the amount of time it's been in storage — and who put it in
and who took it out — can be traced.
In fact, RFID detection technology lets us trace a scope at every
stop through the reprocessing cycle, including the dry leak tester and
the automated endoscope reprocessor. All the devices produce print-
outs that show which employee was caring for the scope during those
reprocessing steps and which patient the scope was used on.
Studies have indicated that bacteria can begin to grow in scopes
after 7 days of not being used. Therefore the standard is to reprocess
scopes again after they've been in a cabinet unused for a week before
they should be used again on patients. With newer high-tech storage
cabinets, scopes are scanned in and timed automatically, meaning you
don't have to manually keep track of how long they've been hanging.
The cabinet displays how many hours the scope has been in storage
and a red light comes on when a week has gone by, signaling that the
scope needs to return for reprocessing.
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