processing division at Crothall Healthcare in New York, N.Y. The
scopes should not touch any common surfaces, such as cabinetry,
clothing or other endoscopes. When carrying scopes from one part of
the workflow to another, one hand should support the control body
and the other should hold the distal end to prevent damage, says Mr.
Escheik.
Make good use of vendor resources.
Major flexible
endoscope manufacturers, such as Olympus, Karl Storz and
Pentax, have many educational resources available for surgery cen-
ters and hospitals and can provide onsite training and competency
checks for scope reprocessing technicians. "Leaders should ensure
they are taking full advantage of this expertise and use it to supple-
ment existing training programs," says Mr. Escheik. "Some compa-
nies will even provide accredited continuing education units for certi-
fied technicians."
Continuous improvement
Don't expect to implement all 10 of these best practices overnight, but
be committed to improving your endoscope reprocessing. And as with
every industry, there is no reason to reinvent the wheel when it comes
to process improvement. Hopefully, these tips will help your sterile
processing team continue on its journey to endoscope reprocessing
excellence.
OSM
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5 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 • F E B R U A R U Y 2 0 1 8
Mr. Balch (hank@beyondclean.net) is the co-founder and host of Beyond Clean,
a podcast that takes a creative look inside the world of sterile processing
(beyondclean.net).
