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R E P R O C E S S I N G
CENTRAL STERILE CITATIONS
Regulation and Research Roundup for Reprocessors
• N.Y. to regulate reprocessors. New York state's central sterile techs
must become certified and earn continuing education credits under
patient safety legislation signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in August. The
law is scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, 2015, making New York the second state with reprocessor requirements, following New Jersey. The
International Association of Healthcare Central Service Materiel
Management (IAHCSMM), which backed the bill, has been introducing
similar legislation to lawmakers in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.
• Cause for concern. The failure to fill an endoscope's long, narrow
channels with cleaning solution, a lack of friction during manual cleaning
and inadequate rinsing can hinder effective decontamination and disinfection, according to Brazilian researchers who surveyed reprocessing
departments at hospitals across their country for a study in December
2012's American Journal of Infection Control. More than 70% of the samples they collected from scope air and water channels at the sites were
contaminated with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, E. coli, and Acinetobacter
baumannii, among other bacteria.
• Monitoring method matters. Testing the sterile, distilled water you've
flushed through the biopsy channel of an endoscopy may give a more
precise, more accurate and more consistent reading on how effective
your scope reprocessing is than swabbing the inner surfaces of an automated endoscope reprocessor, say Taiwanese researchers in the
September 2012 issue of the journal BMC Gastroenterology. Over the
course of 5 years, they conducted 420 rinse-and-swab samples of randomly selected endoscopes and 420 post-cycle-swabs of AERs' residual
water to find a higher positive culture rate from the scope samples.
• Once and done endo. Chinese researchers say a new, disposable,
