make some changes.
You've got to go all
out and try whatever
you can. Yes, whole-
room disinfection sys-
tems are relatively
expensive, but again, a
single infection can be
even more costly.
3. ATP
monitoring
New guidelines from AORN and the Association for the Advancement of
Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) make it clear: You must regularly per-
form cleaning verification testing on endoscopes. And recently, both
CMS and accreditation organization surveyors have begun citing institu-
tions that aren't following this standard. The new guidelines don't say
how the verification testing should be done, but using adenosine triphos-
phate (ATP) is a good option.
ATP monitoring is an evolving concept. It's been used for years, of
course, to check on environmental cleaning after turnover. And I see
an increasing number of ambulatory centers now using it to make
sure their terminal cleaning companies are doing an adequate job. It's
extremely convenient for environmental cleaning, because you don't
have to quarantine the environment. You just do your swab, read your
results, and find out whether there's still some protein present and
whether you need to go over the surface again.
Now, however, GI centers are using various ATP monitoring devices
to check on their scope cleaning. It's not as convenient, because you
have to quarantine the scopes until the testing is done — a real issue
J U N E 2 0 1 7 • O U T PA T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T • 5 7
• BRIGHT FUTURE UV light is extremely effective against pathogens, and newer
whole-room disinfection systems are more affordable and easier to use.
