Managing Endoscopes

Why Channel Drying Is So Crucial To Endoscope Infection Control

Hospital Management, Infection Control, Joint Commission, Managing Endoscopes, Patient Safety, Regulatory Compliance /

Because endoscopes are reusable medical instruments, one of their biggest risks is the very real possibility of passing diseases to patients through contact with inadequately disinfected scopes. Though the risk of passing diseases through scopes is relatively low, the danger is always there, especially when high-level disinfection (HLD) protocols aren’t closely followed. One area where […]

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How To Reduce Unnecessary Contact With Endoscopes Using RFID Technology

Hospital Management, Infection Control, Managing Endoscopes, Patient Safety, Regulatory Compliance /

One of the biggest risks of using flexible endoscopes in healthcare stems from the reusable nature of the expensive instruments. Though the risk of passing disease on through endoscopes is relatively low, the danger is always there even when following the instructions for use provided by the manufacturers. The high-level disinfection process for medical endoscopes

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FDA Presses Industry To Use Duodenoscopes With Disposable Components

Hospital Management, Infection Control, Managing Endoscopes, Patient Safety, Regulatory Compliance /

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has begun its effort to move the US healthcare industry to use duodenoscopes with disposable components, such as end caps. The effort is being made to reduce the incidences of superbug transmissions through inadequately reprocessed duodenoscopes that have been reported in recent years. The FDA is urging

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How To Create A Culture Of Safety Across A Growing Health System

Hospital IT, Hospital Management, Infection Control, Joint Commission, Managing Endoscopes, Patient Safety, Regulatory Compliance, Tissue Management /

Hospitals continue to fight the trends of declining reimbursements and increasing expenses with a multi-pronged attack. One of the favorite tools of larger health systems that are staving off shrinking margins is hospital consolidation. The idea goes that as more hospitals are brought into the health system, efficiencies can be gained by sending less profitable

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Mayo Clinic Physician Reiterates Need To Focus On Safe Endoscope Reprocessing

Hospital Management, Infection Control, Managing Endoscopes, Patient Safety, Regulatory Compliance /

Hospitals continue to focus on duodenoscopes and their successful reprocessing in order to reduce the incidence of superbug breakouts related to endoscopes. The primary concern that hospitals have to address regarding duodenoscope reprocessing revolves around some of the manual components of disinfecting these devices. Bret T. Petersen, MD of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota

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How To Increase Endoscope Reprocessing Protocol Adherence With Technology

Hospital Management, Infection Control, Joint Commission, Managing Endoscopes, Patient Safety, Regulatory Compliance /

Flexible endoscopes have been the source of many superbug breakouts over the past decade. In order to protect your facility from the patient safety and legal nightmares that superbug breakouts lead to, you need to make sure that your staff is following your standard operating procedures for reprocessing endoscopes every single time. Even the best

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Oregon Health & Science University Implements Endoscope Tracking Software As An Investment In Patient Safety

Clinical Documentation, Hospital Management, Infection Control, Joint Commission, Managing Endoscopes, Operational Efficiency, Patient Safety, Regulatory Compliance /

Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) implemented the iRIScope endoscope tracking system from Mobile Aspects to help automate the documentation of reprocessing and storage practices for endoscopes in its new Center for Health & Healing Building 2(CHH2). As the only academic health center in the state, OHSU is where personalized patient care is combined with

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Are Your Endoscopes Being Reprocessed Too Slowly? How to Use Data to Speed Things Up

Cost Reduction, Hospital Finance, Hospital Management, Infection Control, Managing Endoscopes, Operational Efficiency /

With all the protocols that endoscope techs and sterile processing staff must follow to properly high level disinfect every scope, flexible endoscopes can disappear into a black hole when they are needed most – only to pop up again when it is too late. There are several contributors to this inefficiency: long waiting periods in

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The Problem With Broken Endoscopes And How To Avoid Them

Cost Reduction, Hospital Finance, Hospital Management, Infection Control, Managing Endoscopes, Patient Safety /

Flexible endoscopes can cost a hospital a lot of money – and cost patients valuable time – when going through avoidable repairs. Repairing flexible endoscopes often requires expensive maintenance from third-party organizations, delayed or canceled cases due to unusable scopes and procurement of expensive loaner scopes to handle the required workload. Spending time and effort

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How Technology Can Help Your Hospital Reach High Compliance Rates In Endoscope Reprocessing

Hospital Management, Infection Control, Managing Endoscopes, Patient Safety, Regulatory Compliance /

Over the last decade, incidences of outbreaks from infections that can be attributed to poorly disinfected endoscopes have been showing up in the news regularly. So much so that regulatory bodies from the US Congress to the FDA have been increasing their scrutiny of these extremely useful, yet sometimes problematic reusable medical instruments. Many different

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