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E N D O S C O P E
R E P R O C E S S I N G
dures, tech must immediately wipe down scopes, flush them with enzymatic cleaner and water, and place them back into containers for transport to the reprocessing area. (Our containers have double-sided lids.
When used scopes are placed in containers, the lids are flipped so biohazard signs show.) Techs in the reprocessing area clean the scopes
and disinfect the containers, then stack them on the clean side of the
room for use again (we have about 30 bins to keep up with scope volume).
3. Meticulous cleaning
We don't eliminate any aspect of manual cleaning from scope reprocessing, even though our new automatic endoscope reprocessor
(AER) performs the task. (My hospital's infection prevention department wasn't comfortable relying on the machine to perform the crucial decontamination.) A device mounted near the sinks that automatically flushes endoscope channels after manual cleaning has been a
significant factor in helping our techs perform the all-important step
quickly and effectively.
Leak tests performed during manual cleaning are largely effective in
ensuring the integrity of scopes before they're run through high-level
disinfection cycles, but pinhole-sized defects can be missed. Our new
AERs can detect the tiniest leaks, and still reprocess scopes without
damaging internal components. That means we can send clean scopes
out for repair instead of, as before, immediately stopping the repro1 1 8
O U T PAT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | M A R C H 2013
