Managing Endoscopes

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

July 2, 2019 / 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

October 12, 2021 / 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

May 30, 2019 / 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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Government Continues Probe Into Manufacturers of Contaminated Duodenoscopes

May 16, 2019 / Hospital Management, Infection Control, Managing Endoscopes, Patient Safety, Regulatory Compliance /

The US Government is continuing its scrutiny of Olympus and the other major endoscope manufacturers following several reports of infections related to duodenoscopes in recent years. The latest chapter includes a letter written by a US Senator asking for additional information regarding duodenoscope investigations. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) wrote a letter to the three major

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Are You Reprocessing Endoscopes Efficiently?

May 9, 2019 / Cost Reduction, Hospital Management, Infection Control, Managing Endoscopes, Operating Rooms, Operational Efficiency /

In today’s environment, Endoscopy and PeriOperative departments need to be very careful to follow their endoscope reprocessing protocols extremely closely. With all the reports of superbug outbreaks due to the inadequate disinfection of scopes, it is the primary job of sterile processing (or whichever department oversees reprocessing scopes) to provide safe endoscopes to use on

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Nearly Half Million Dollars In Endoscopes Stolen From Pennsylvania Hospital

October 6, 2021 / Hospital Finance, Hospital Management, Managing Endoscopes /

During a recent weekend shift, nearly a half million dollars’ worth of colonoscopes were stolen from a hospital outside of Philadelphia. 3 thieves were suspected of walking out of Lankenau Medical Center with the equipment in broad daylight. This is not the first time this has happened with flexible endoscopes. In 2017, over $1 million

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FDA Releases Update On Contamination Risks Of Duodenoscopes

April 17, 2019 / Hospital Management, Infection Control, Managing Endoscopes, Patient Safety, Regulatory Compliance /

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released another update regarding its research into the safety and contamination risks associated with the use of duodenoscopes. After receiving further research results, the FDA is reiterating its previous recommendations regarding the proper handling and reprocessing of duodenoscopes that it released in a Safety Communication in

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How To Store And Track Extra Long Scopes

April 15, 2019 / Hospital Management, Infection Control, Joint Commission, Managing Endoscopes, Patient Safety, Regulatory Compliance /

Extra-long scopes, such as small bowel enteroscopes, can often be a challenge for endoscopy departments to track and manage. Their long bodies do not fit easily in to the standard scope storage cabinets that are typically used to store all scopes. Because of this challenge, most hospitals store their extra-long scopes in standard storage cabinets

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Having Trouble Tracking Loaner Scopes? This Technology Can Help

April 8, 2019 / Cost Reduction, Hospital Finance, Hospital Management, Managing Endoscopes, Operating Rooms /

Managers of Endoscopy and PeriOperative departments often see a constant stream of endoscopes being sent out for repair and loaner scopes being sent back to them for “temporary” use. However, it is all too common for these loaner scopes to become a permanent part of their scope fleet – they are hard to track and

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FDA Releases Statement On Potential Dangers Of Duodenoscopes

February 7, 2019 / Hospital Management, Infection Control, Managing Endoscopes, Patient Safety, Regulatory Compliance /

Contrary to recent claims by Olympus regarding the safety of its duodenoscopes, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has put out a statement regarding the dangers of using duodenoscopes. Duodenoscopes have been in the spotlight over the past several years due to a large number of patient safety incidents reported around the world.

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