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Article: To dry or not to dry the endoscope?(Having My Say)
- Article from:
- Healthcare Purchasing News
- Article date:
- October 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Healthcare Purchasing News. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Last spring, Healthcare Purchasing News published an article I wrote entitled, "Lessons from the bronchoscope case: What happened at Allegheny General?" (March 2003, p. 26).
Among other commentary discussed in my article, I recommend drying the endoscope after reprocessing--that is, after cleaning, chemical immersion, and terminal water rinsing. Drying is necessary to prevent the colonization of waterborne bacteria, such as Pseudomonas, aeruginosa, in the internal channels of gastrointestinal (GI) flexible endoscopes and bronchoscopes between reuses. It can be easily and inexpensively accomplished by manually flushing all of the endoscope's channels with 70% ...