Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1544360
8 EXECUTIVE BRIEFING 1 EXECUTIVE BRIEFING Endoscopies are among the most common procedures in the U.S. with millions performed each year. For providers to safely and effi ciently perform a high volume of endoscopies there needs to be a high-performing endoscopy team, especially sterile processing technicians and endoscopy reprocessing technicians. To learn more about reprocessing challenges facing endoscopy staff and how top-performing teams can address them, Becker's healthcare spoke with two endoscope reprocessing experts from Healthmark, a Getinge company. A complicated environment Physicians and endoscopy teams often perform 12 to 16 endoscopy procedures per day, as each procedure typically takes just 15 to 30 minutes. This high volume puts technicians under constant pressure. "It's a very complicated environment," said Mary Ann Drosnock, DrHSc, head of clinical affairs at Healthmark. "Technicians are faced with time and environmental pressures. They are gowned up in PPE. It can be hot. It's wet. They're putting their hands in sinks of cleaning solution. It's a high-pressure, tough environment." Teams are responsible for ensuring that scopes are clean, safe and available for every procedure. To minimize risks and achieve high levels of patient safety, endoscopy teams must follow standards and guidelines, implement best practices and make sure documentation is accurate. Imperfect scopes pose risk When conducting an endoscopy, the scope is the critical tool and if a scope has any undetected damage, such as scratches or areas of poor integrity, it can expose patients to possible infection or injury. Dyan Darga, clinical education specialist at Healthmark, explained that scratches or crevices can attract bacteria and biofi lm, which are hard to remove and can lead to infections. Dr. Drosnock noted that in addition to biofi lm, using a damaged scope can cause harm to a patient. She has seen damaged scopes hurt patients' mucosal linings in the esophagus and in the intestinal tract as well as injuring ureters and kidneys. Recognizing the serious risks of infection and injury from use of unclean or damaged scopes, Healthmark recommends several best practices for detecting damage and decreasing the risks to patients. Endoscopy at scale: The reprocessing best practices separating high-performing teams Enhanced visual inspection The easiest way to detect damage to a scope is through a simple visual inspection. But in most instances a basic visual inspection is not adequate. Ms. Darga recommends an enhanced visual inspection with lighted magnifi cation. "Enhanced visual inspection with 5X or 10X magnifi cation completely changes the game and it allows us to see things the naked eye can't see and provides much more detail," Ms. Darga shared. Enhanced visual inspection with magnifi cation makes it possible to see debris, observe if something is stuck in a crevice and detect damage to a scope earlier. In addition to magnifi cation, enhanced visual inspection also includes proper lighting. Each year, medical device recalls and safety corrections prompt health systems to reassess how devices are inspected, maintained and used in clinical settings. Many of these actions are not tied to device failure alone, but to opportunities to strengthen inspection and reprocessing practices. In the gastrointestinal and endoscopy space, recent device corrections have reinforced the need for enhanced visual inspection using higher levels of magnifi cation—such as 10× magnifi cation—for duodenoscopes. These specialized side-viewing scopes, used to perform ERCP procedures, have been implicated in multiple instances of infection transmission and even patient deaths. Higher magnifi cation enables more effective detection of surface damage and residual debris. These updates refl ect a broader shift toward more rigorous inspection expectations, including performing enhanced visual inspection not only during reprocessing, but closer to the point of care. As a result, health systems are evaluating inspection tools that are small, handheld, and easy to clean and store within procedure rooms. Dr. Drosnock shared that these requirements are new and many organizations are continuing to include them in their standard operating procedures.