random, weekly audits of the
reprocessing process. She should
review reprocessing logs and con-
duct real-time teaching. Continue
the weekly auditing for several
months before eventually scaling
them back to biweekly and, final-
ly, monthly. She should never let
more than month lapse before auditing the reprocessing room. Your
techs might not like the surprise visits, but they'll quickly realize that
their actions are under close scrutiny and that they need to raise their
level of performance. In some ways, it helps them become better at
their jobs. Instead of rote reprocessing, they have to explain the
rationale behind each step, which signals true understanding.
6. Have a presence. Visit your reprocessing room every day
and engage the team. You don't have to perform a full audit, but the
regular face time will keep staff on task and you aware of what's really
happening in the reprocessing area. Make sure staff have needed
resources. I've seen techs use the wrong-sized brush because they ran
out of the correct size. Regular observations will help ensure that's
never an issue.
7. rotate staff. What happens if one of your regular techs is
absent, leaving the reprocessing room short-staffed? Rotate
endoscopy techs through the cleaning room so they reprocess scopes
about once every month. Doing so will keep their skills fresh, so
reprocessing quality won't suffer if regular techs are absent. OSM
9 9
February 2015 | O U T PAT I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T
Ms. Heard (lheard@rmf.harvard.edu) is program director of patient safety at CRICO, an evidence-
based risk management company in Boston, Mass. She is past president of the Society of
Gastroenterology Nurses and Associates and served as director of perioperative and endoscopy services
at North Shore Medical Center and manager of the gastroenterology procedure unit at Boston
Children's Hospital.
zSAFETY CHECKMany automatic endoscope reproces-
sors abort cycles if scopes aren't connected properly.
Pamela
bevelhymer,
rN,
bSN
