certified? Connecticut, New Jersey, New York
and Tennessee are the only 4 states that
require sterile processors to be certified. No
state requires special education or a degree.
"But even if your state doesn't require your
reprocessors to be certified, maybe your facil-
ity should," says Mr. Lavanchy, who adds you
should at the very least require mandatory
continuing education for your sterile process-
ing techs. "I know that techs are often over-
worked and underpaid, and that good ones
are hard to find and keep. But if your facility
doesn't invest in proper training and continu-
ous documented competency, I might be con-
cerned enough to go elsewhere for my
colonoscopy."
It's a backbreaking job
Cleaning endoscopes might look easy, but it's
a particularly challenging task. Ms. Ofstead
once observed techs cleaning scopes and tal-
lied the number of steps in the process.
"Depending on the kind of scope, 120 to 140
discrete steps have to be done in the right
order," she says. "I don't have that attention to
detail that I could sustain all day."
Plus, it's a physically demanding job.
"Holding the scope, leaning over the sink and
doing the brushing — I would have back,
neck, shoulder and hand pain," she says.
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