PD-VISION From Prairie Dog Tech Captures Real-Time Images of Endoscope Cleaning Sinks in Operation

Prairie Dog Tech, LLC announces the launch of PD-VISION™, an optional enhancement to its innovative THE OBSERVER™ Mobile App. PD-VISION™ provides immediate access to real-time photos of endoscope cleaning sinks, along with a complete and searchable catalog of past images.

"PD-VISION™ makes THE OBSERVER™ mobile app an even more powerful and potentially life-saving tool," said David Bassion Jr., founding member of Prairie Dog Tech, LLC. " Cleaning is supremely important in health care settings, especially in the case of reusable devices that are routinely in contact with bodily fluids."

Manual cleaning in a sink is arguably the most important step in the process of disinfecting reusable endoscopes, yet it's also one of the least well documented. PD-VISION™ solves that issue, creating a database of images that can be searched by time and date, or scope ID.

The problem of contaminated endoscopes has been a major health care news story in recent months. Hundreds of patients at some of the nation's most highly regarded hospitals may have been exposed to dangerous pathogens, some because of improperly cleaned, disinfected or stored endoscopes. Because tracing the source of any single infection is often impossible, it's impossible to determine the actual number of people harmed or killed as a result of this problem.

Because they're designed to be reused indefinitely, the cleaning standards for endoscopes must be tremendously exacting. However, cleaning endoscopes has proven to be a tough challenge for a myriad of reasons. Previously, it was discovered that the cleaning instructions provided by the device manufacturers were not adequate to the task and were therefore revised. Another challenge has been the overall complexity of the process itself. Training is obviously important, but the level of monitoring enabled by PD-VISION™ makes it convenient for providers and administrators to ensure that standards are being sustained.

According to research conducted in 2014-15, workers frequently feel pressure to work quickly, and their work is often interrupted. Ideally, endoscope cleaning and disinfection is a seamless process in which time between steps is minimized and equipment must reach proper temperature and time for total disinfection. THE OBSERVER™, together with the PD-VISION™ enhancement, can help hospitals meet these standards. In addition, the database of sink images could be useful in the event of an audit or process review.

PD-VISION™ offers the healthcare industry a way to assure compliance and maintain the highest possible scope safety standards. With the combination of visual tracking and THE OBSERVER™, mistakes can be caught and corrected, which protects both the individual worker and the hospital as a whole. Moreover, patients can rest assured that reusable endoscopes will be processed according to hospital and manufacture standards.

Source: Prairie Dog Tech, LLC