In working with various hospitals across the country, particularly with their scope management practice, we are seeing that all caregivers absolutely have the intention of delivering at the highest level of quality and safety. As organization leaders, it is our job to help our team members meet these important goals. In working with these provider Leaders, the scrutiny on scopes is causing themselves to ask certain questions. The first, and most important, is “are we accountable?”
Hospital leadership and Managers of Gastroenterology and PeriOperative areas that have scopes are telling me that people are working hard – often long shifts, past their work hours. We all applaud the team members for their hard work. Yet, with the growing need to become “more efficient” hospital team members are also giving input that they are doing more work and have less resources around them. This is where accountability starts to come in to play.
The best practices we have seen demonstrate that Hospital Leadership and Managers are acutely aware of their endoscope management practice. Some of the best practices seen include:
- They have documented the entire lifecycle of the scope, not just the cleaning processes.
- Documented practices include roles and responsibilities – this creates the first level of accountability.
- Training is established for team members across the scope lifecycle continuum, not just one part of the process.
- Managers and team members have a list of their entire fleet of scopes, including which scopes are currently being repaired.
- A process is identified for borrowing of scopes, including documentation.
- Leaders and managers continually “inspect what they expect” and work with team members to make adjustments.
These practices begin to establish accountability in endoscope management. Further, as accreditation and auditing agencies adjust their reviews and further scrutinize, this accountable practice provides reviews, adjustments in protocols and the ability to engage team members in why things must change and adapt.
The accreditation and auditing agencies are being forced to scrutinize endoscope management practices with the extreme focus in this area by the media in government. Coupled with the fact that hospitals are being asked to “do more with less”, process oriented, accountable endoscope management is now required.
Mobile Aspects provides a free checklist of items for your organization to determine whether you have an “Accountable Endoscope Management Practice.” Please contact me or contact Mobile Aspects through this link to receive your free checklist. It’s worth the time investment to ensure you are providing the safest environment for your patients and your team members.