Healthmarket Digest Online
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ALERT!
Preventing Cross-Contamination in Endoscope Processing - Safety
Communication from FDA, CDC, and the VA |
Thursday, November 19, 2009 a communication was posted on
the FDA web site concerning a public health problem with flexible endoscopes.
http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/Safety/AlertsandNotices/ucm190273.htm
The alert informed medical facilities that flexible
endoscopes are fundamentally difficult to clean and disinfect or sterilize.
Because of this, it is essential that facilities establish a quality improvement
program that covers all aspects of endoscopy procedure management.
Recent studies have noted that compliance with accepted
cleaning practices for flexible endoscopes has been shown to be less than
optimal in many centers. In fact, many of
these studies have stated that protein,
hemoglobin and carbohydrates have been found in the biopsy channel and are good
markers for monitoring cleanliness of flexible scopes. If high levels of these
soils are still present after cleaning, there could be issues with the high
level disinfection (HLD) and/or sterilization of the flexible scope.
Making sure your staff knows how to clean a scope before
it receives high level disinfections or sterilization is important. The
question is how. Products are available to help you improve your process when
it comes to checking flexible scopes for cleanliness. ChannelCheck™
is the first product capable of testing for residual organic soils inside the
various channels of flexible endoscopes, no matter the channel size. ChannelCheck™
tests for three common organic soils at once: blood, protein and carbohydrates.
Checking
scopes for residual bio-burden before high level disinfection or sterilization
should be a part of any facility quality improvement program; you now have the means
not only to check your scope, but also
your staff competency in how well they clean the scopes, with the
ChannelCheck™.
Sincerely,
Stephen Kovach
Director of Education
Healthmark Industries Company, Inc.
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| Tip of the Week |
JCAHO, AAMI, AORN, IAHCSMM, SGNA, APIC all recommend that
departments have quality improvement process in place. Make sure you have at
least the following information in your improvement policy: cleaning
verification of the scope and equipment, leak testing of the scope, documentation
of training of staff, tracking methods for tracking scopes, if using HLD you
need to monitor the concentration of the solution.
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| Thank You for Your Continued Interest! |
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Alex Kirk
Healthmark Industries Company, Inc.
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