out of the AER and storing it.
Ms. Patrick: Endoscopes' design makes them inherently difficult to
clean. If you can't see the surface, it's hard to know if it's clean. But
there are options out there to help, like little scopes with a light
source that let you look inside the scope's lumens or ATP cleaning
verification tests. One thing some of the bigger hospitals are doing is
culturing scopes more regularly. They aspirate sterile water through
the scope and then send the sample to their lab for testing. Some do it
for all scopes, while others may only do it for their complex scopes.
You need to start by doing a risk assessment, and shape your process
from there.
Ms. Hohenberger: It also helps to ensure that you have enough endo-
scopes to match your case volume. That allows techs enough time to
reprocess them correctly.
Ms. Groven: We don't use flexible scopes at my current facility, but if we
did, they would be my top concern. I don't envy anyone at facilities
that do use them.
OSM
9 0 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • M A R C H 2 0 1 6
Hand hygiene is the No. 1 way to stop the spread
of disease. It's a universal first line of defense.
— Heather Hohenberger, BSN, RN, CIC, CNOR, CPHQ
