As expensive medical instruments that experience a lot of wear and tear, flexible endoscopes can cost a hospital a lot of money when going through avoidable repairs. Repairing flexible endoscopes often requires expensive maintenance from third-party organizations, downtime of services due to unusable scopes and procurement of expensive loaner scopes to handle the required workload. […]
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With The Joint Commission (TJC) spending an increasing amount of time in Sterile Processing Departments, Perioperative Departments and Endoscopy Suites during site surveys, the focus on maintaining high quality endoscope-related documentation has become a focus for many hospitals. TJC surveys, though only occurring once every 3 years, have become a huge a point of emphasis
Having Trouble Tracing Endoscopes To Patients? This Technology Can Help Read More »
Olympus’ recent legal battles took a serious turn this week when the Japanese company pleaded guilty to distributing endoscopes carrying known infection risks. Olympus and one of its executives pleaded guilty in a New Jersey court to 4 counts – 3 counts for Olympus and 1 count for an executive – of wrongful distribution of
Olympus Pleads Guilty To Selling Misbranded Duodenoscopes Read More »
In response to a recent research report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), Olympus has claimed that there is no link between its endoscopes and for a series of over 200 superbug infections around the world. The constant legal battles that Olympus is facing have yet to find the Japanese company solely responsible
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A research report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has revealed that the number of superbug infections in patients following the use of an Olympus endoscope totaled over 190 between 2012 and 2015 in the United States and Europe. The number of deaths linked to patients infected with superbugs and the role superbugs
Research Reveals Number Of Superbug Infections Tied To Olympus Endoscopes Read More »
Over the last several years, endoscope-related outbreaks from around the US and the world have led to increased oversight of the endoscope high-level disinfection (HLD) process at many hospitals. Many hospitals are now finding themselves in a struggle to oversee the HLD process at their facilities without introducing too much oversight and intervention into the
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As the United States Department of Justice continues to examine Olympus’ role in infections related to the use of its duodenoscopes, the company is setting aside millions of dollars in reserves to cover expected losses from related lawsuits. As the leader in duodenoscope and endoscope sales in the US, Olympus expects to bear a majority
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A hospital in Western Pennsylvania has recently been hit with a class action lawsuit from patients who underwent ultrasound procedures at the hospital. UPMC Jameson, a hospital in the UPMC Health System, had recently reached out to more than 200 patients who underwent ultrasound procedures at the hospital from October 2017 to October 2018. Attorney
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The ECRI Institute, based in Philadelphia, has just released its annual list of health technology hazards for 2019. Endoscope reprocessing once again appears on the list, coming in as the number 5 hazard for 2019. The Top 10 Health Technology Hazards List is the result of extensive research by ECRI’s engineers, scientists and clinicians, as
Top Health Technology Hazards List For 2019 Includes Endoscope Reprocessing Read More »
Several recent studies have shown that despite best efforts to follow manufacturer reprocessing guidelines, bronchoscopes deemed ready for patient use are still contaminated at a high rate. Some of the most recent research highlighting the difficulties of disinfecting bronchoscopes was published by Cori Ofstead, MSPH. In a recent presentation at the annual meeting of the
Study Reveals Bronchoscopes Ready For Use On Patients Are Still Dirty Read More »