Tips for Success Quality Improvement ProcessManual Cleaning Verification
Customers often ask how they can implement cleaning verification as part of their Quality Control Process for reprocessing Flexible and Semi Rigid Endoscopes. Sterile processing professionals are expected to verify that they are able to clean, disinfect, and sterilize instruments using automatic cleaning equipment and manual cleaning processes according to the manufacturer’s instructions for use (IFU).
What the Standards Recommend On Cleaning Verification AAMI ST 91 12.4.2 Cleaning verification Cleaning verification of flexible and semi-rigid endoscopes should include: Visual inspection combined with other verification methods that allows the assessment of both external surfaces and internal housing and channels. ( ANSI/AAMI ST91:2015 Flexible and semi-rigid endoscope processing in health care facilities, p 39) AORN “Guideline for processing flexible endoscopes” include the following Manual cleaning of flexible endoscopes should be verified with cleaning verification tests when new endoscopes are purchased and at established intervals ( eg, after each use, daily). (2016 AORN Guideline for processing flexible endoscopes, XIII.f., p734).
SPONSORED BY ASP
Visual Inspection Visual Inspection should be conducted to detect the presence of any residual soil. Inspection using magnification and additional illumination might identify residues more readily than the unaided eye. For internal channels of device, a video boroscope of an appropriate dimension (length and diameter) may be used to visually inspect the internal channels of some medical devices. 2015 AAMI ST 91 p39) Although it is not a guarantee that decontamination from manual cleaning is complete, visual inspection can be considered a safety stop or “time out” to ensure the endoscope is visually clean before proceeding to the next step of high level disinfection. ( 2016 SGNA Standards of Infection Prevention in Reprocessing of Flexible Gastrointestinal Endoscopes, p18).
DIGITAL SUPPLEMENT | ASP |
7
