Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Special Outpatient Surgery Edition - Megatrends - January 2018

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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at least part of the equation. Some say it's worth the added cost to remove the extra step of drawing up a drug, thus running the risk of contamination. Moreover, prefilled syringes hold anesthetists account- able so there is no risk of "double dipping" into a vial, says Dr. Biddle. If your anesthesia providers want proof of how great the risk of contamination is at the head of the table, ask them to read "Microbiological Contamination of Drugs During Their Administration for Anesthesia in the Operating Room" (osmag.net/5KRDxd), a study published in Anesthesiology last year that found that inadvertent lapses in anesthetists' aseptic technique contributes to surgical site and other post-operative infections. 3. Unseen residual debris on reprocessed instruments When it comes to surgical instrumentation, the challenges of cross- contamination are magnified by the increasing complexity of surgi- cal devices, which in turn makes cleaning, inspecting and sterilizing these instruments that much more problematic, says Weston "Hank" Balch, BS, MDiv, CRCST, CIS, CHL, the system director of sterile processing at University Health System in San Antonio, Texas. The solution: tools that allow for greater magnification during the inspection stage. Take flexible endoscopes, for example. With intense focus on leak testing, flushing and brushing of internal channels, and proper HLD/low-temp sterilization processing, Mr. Balch says processing technicians often overlook and under-inspect the distal tip of these devices. But tools such as handheld lighted magnification devices or table-top microscopes can ensure reprocessed scopes have no resid- ual contamination or damage that could harbor future microbes. New 3 4 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 8

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