INSIDE THE CURRENT ISSUE

November 2010

2010 Endoscope Maintenance Guide
 

High-quality patient care hinges on effective tool care Endoscopy success measured in repair and reprocessing When the door to the surgical suite shuts, the nurses position themselves near the patient on the operating room table and the clinical tension starts to build there’s little doubt that one of the key thoughts on the surgeon’s mind as he or she enters the sterile field are the tools on the tray. Those devices and instruments aren’t generic products. They’re tools he or she is comfortable using and can wield them with acute expertise. And they’ve hopefully been reprocessed or packaged completely and correctly. Anything short of that impacts the health of the patient lying on the table before him or her. Certainly, tools do not make the heavily educated and trained professional who works with them. Instead they can affect the clinical outcome of the patient, which in turn reverberates throughout the healthcare delivery chain. That’s why Healthcare Purchasing News publishes its annual Endoscope Care Guide 2010, a November edition mainstay for the last six years. We created it as a reader service to provide hard-working clinicians and administrators with useful information on cleaning, disinfecting, sterilizing and repairing all types of flexible and rigid endoscopes thoroughly, efficiently and cost-effectively. HPN’s exclusive guide also highlights the obvious and overlooked dangers from improper cleaning, repair and storage, and identifies best practices for device longevity and reliability. After all, proper tool care can produce high-quality patient care. We recruited experts and professionals from some of the leading companies that manufacture endoscopic products and offer endoscopic care services to share their expertise on making sure these costly surgical tools are ready for action all year long. What you read here and learn may help you down the road, whether an administrator, clinician or patient. Unlocking endoscope repair secrets Keeping minor repairs from becoming major Endoscope repair warning signs Storing endoscopes: How long is too long? Debunking endoscope processing myths Avoiding, sidestepping reprocessing breakdowns When the FDA red lights your reprocessing process Third-degree queries needed for third-party repair choices Endoscopy repair services A to Z