manual clean-
ing issues
that have
been in the
headlines.
Staff should
be pre-clean-
ing the
scopes at the
point of use
and flushing
them with an
enzymatic
solution
before sending them to decontamination. You often see staff reusing
basins or sponges to pre-clean, which risks cross-contamination. I
instead advocate for single-use kits that contain everything you need
for the procedure and pre-cleaning, like disposable sponges, basins,
brushes and lube. You can make them yourself, or buy them pre-
made.
Once pre-cleaned, there are sometimes problems handling the
scopes. If the person who pre-cleans and transports it to decontami-
nation isn't wearing the right PPE, her scrubs become contaminated.
If she is also the one cleaning, reprocessing and storing the scope,
now her contaminated scrubs have put that clean scope at risk. Best
practice would be to advocate for a standard procedure for maintain-
ing clean and dirty. One person can be in charge of pre-cleaning,
decontaminating and placing the scope in the AER, all while wearing
the recommended PPE. Then, a person not contaminated by the
cleaning process maintains the newly reprocessed scope, getting it
M A R C H 2 0 1 6 • O U T PA T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T • 8 9
• PRE-CLEANING MADE EASY One of the simplest ways to prevent cross contamination during endoscopy procedures is to
use single-use kits featuring a disposable brush, basin, lube bottle and sponge.
Donna
Nucci,
RN,
CIC
