infect a device."
How to verify
cleanliness
The study's findings
support the need for
careful visual inspec-
tion and cleaning veri-
fication tests to ensure
that endoscopes are
free of damage and
debris before they are
high-level disinfected or sterilized, says Ms. Ofstead. She also suggests
an increased emphasis on drying before storage.
• Increased visual inspection. After the manual clean, a tech should
visually inspect the scope for debris before placing it in the automated
endoscope reprocessor (AER). You can use a lighted magnifying glass
to inspect the scope's components. You can also examine the inside of
the scope for damage and debris with a borescope, a very small-diam-
eter scope that lets you look with a camera inside endoscope chan-
nels.
• Cleaning verification tests. Routine monitoring for biochemical
markers of residual contamination can identify suboptimal reprocess-
ing. A tech can collect samples from a scope to test for protein, hemo-
globin and ATP, a marker that identifies organic matter, to tell you if
you failed to achieve a level of cleanliness needed for disinfection and
sterilization to work.
"ECRI hesitates to advocate the use of validation tests as a quality
control measure because they're still largely unproven," says Mr.
Lavanchy. "Tests can be useful to periodically check how you're doing,
3 2 • 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 7
• VISUALIZATION AND INSPECTION A borescope can give you a view of the inside of an endoscope.
Ofstead
&
Associates
