How to Ensure the Safety of Your Endoscopic Patients

Endoscopy includes the insertion of an endoscope, a long, thin tube, directly into the patient’s body. From there, the physician can observe an internal organ or tissue in great detail. Endoscopes are minimally invasive and can be inserted into the openings in the patient’s body or through small incisions. Due to their minimally invasive nature, endoscopy poses few risks to the patient, provides greater insight for the physician, and are relatively quick to complete helping with operating room turnover time. These procedures are typically performed on an outpatient basis and carry a low risk of complications.

This type of procedure can be used to further investigate a patient’s symptoms. The physician will be able to search for a cause to the indicator’s and provide the patient with a more accurate diagnosis. If a diagnosis needs confirmation, an endoscope can be used to complete a biopsy to provide that validation. Lastly, endoscopy can be used to treat an illness directly with minimal danger to the patient. This leads to faster recovery rates and reduced risk of infection.

The endoscope contains a camera on the end of a flexible tube made of durable material. These scopes can be used for many patients with the proper reprocessing. Endoscope reprocessing is critical to eliminate any risk that an infection could be transmitted from one patient to another. The following steps must be followed to ensure the safety of your endoscopic patients.

• Post-Procedure Reprocessing: pre-cleaning after a procedure decreases the likelihood of bacterial growth and scope blockages.

• Transportation: ensure proper care is taken while transporting endoscopes from the endoscopy suite to reduce the risk of exposing the facility staff and patients to biohazardous material.

• Mechanical cleaning: all portions of the endoscope are washed thoroughly and cleaned with enzymatic fluids. It is critical to select the appropriate products to breakdown the bioburden while preventing damage to the scope.  

• Leak testing: the internal channels of the endoscope must be tested to ensure there are no leaks and the scope is operating correctly

• Disinfection: to achieve high level disinfection, the scope must be soaked in the appropriate liquid chemicals to eliminate microbial life

• Storage: after disinfecting, the endoscope should be rinsed and dried completely before hanging for storage

Proper adherence to endoscope reprocessing standards is critical to the safety of the endoscopic patient. All facilities should have a quality assurance program for the proper training, supervision, and competency of the staff involved with endoscopy procedures. 

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Created on Dec 11th 2019 04:46. Viewed 282 times.

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