Sterile Processing

More than 10 million endoscope procedures are performed in the United States each year. There is no doubt that these medical devices have been a major advancement in the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases. It has been well published about the link between inadequately cleaned duodenoscopes and infections. More recently, several studies and media reports have linked outbreaks of multi-drug resistant organ-isms (MDROs) to these devices without any findings of reprocessing breaches.

Q:  We have always run the biological test (BI) in the morning immediately after the Bowie-Dick test to make sure we do not forget to perform the test. We run the test pack by itself. We recently had a survey and were cited because we did not run the biological test in the first working load. We have done the BI test this way for years and no one has ever said it was wrong. What is the recommended process?

Q: Currently our process for hand-washed items is that once they are placed in the window one of my staff members wipes the item down with alcohol and then will blow it out (if necessary) place it in the dryer or prepare for sterilization. We do not wear gloves during this process. I have reached out to other facilities and they do not either. I have a new employee who is uncomfortable with wiping off items that come through the window without wearing gloves. What is the best practice?

Q:  We are experiencing problems with damaged packaging, especially for our loaner sets.  This is causing delays in the operating room and a lot of frustration for the OR and sterile processing staff. What can be done to rectify this?