The United States Food & Drug Administration (FDA) is touting the benefits of tying unique device identifiers (UDIs) on medical devices to patient outcomes via electronic medical records. UDIs have been a long-term dream for many in healthcare, who view the ability to track and trace medical devices using unique item-level codes as a true […]
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The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has begun its effort to move the US healthcare industry to use duodenoscopes with disposable components, such as end caps. The effort is being made to reduce the incidences of superbug transmissions through inadequately reprocessed duodenoscopes that have been reported in recent years. The FDA is urging
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Hospitals continue to fight the trends of declining reimbursements and increasing expenses with a multi-pronged attack. One of the favorite tools of larger health systems that are staving off shrinking margins is hospital consolidation. The idea goes that as more hospitals are brought into the health system, efficiencies can be gained by sending less profitable
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Hospitals continue to focus on duodenoscopes and their successful reprocessing in order to reduce the incidence of superbug breakouts related to endoscopes. The primary concern that hospitals have to address regarding duodenoscope reprocessing revolves around some of the manual components of disinfecting these devices. Bret T. Petersen, MD of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota
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Flexible endoscopes have been the source of many superbug breakouts over the past decade. In order to protect your facility from the patient safety and legal nightmares that superbug breakouts lead to, you need to make sure that your staff is following your standard operating procedures for reprocessing endoscopes every single time. Even the best
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Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) implemented the iRIScope endoscope tracking system from Mobile Aspects to help automate the documentation of reprocessing and storage practices for endoscopes in its new Center for Health & Healing Building 2(CHH2). As the only academic health center in the state, OHSU is where personalized patient care is combined with
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
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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Many Perioperative departments have told us that their recent visits by The Joint Commission (TJC) included a more in-depth review of their tissue implant logs. A number of Perioperative administrators and nurses agreed that during their last visit from TJC they wanted to see a higher level of documentation when it comes to tracking tissue
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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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