culture. Unacceptable culture results require scope recleaning,
reculturing and a return to quarantine pending results of the sec-
ond culture.
• Make the job easier. You can't expect staff members to remember
each step of the more than 40 involved in scope reprocessing. To help
make the difficult task of cleaning scopes a bit easier, I created a lami-
nated placard — comprise of three legal-sized pieces of paper — list-
ing all of the required steps, along with how-to pictures. They're readi-
ly available, in-the-moment visual aids for staff to reference. You
should also implement skill validation sessions and educational in-ser-
vices to ensure staff understand and follow proper reprocessing pro-
tocols.
• Keep adapting. The cleaning brush our scope vendor recommend-
Infection Prevention
IP
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