CS CONNECTION


carry a heightened risk of SARS-CoV-2 spread in non-intubated patients due to possible direct droplet transmission and/or viral aerosolization and inhalation during insertion/removal of the probe and/or coughing.”


When transporting contaminated TEE probes from the point of care to a reprocessing site, the ASE recommends that: “The TEE probes should also be thoroughly wiped (including handle, cable, and connector), placed in closed containers and transported in those containers to the cleaning facility.”1


John Whelan, BSN, RN, Clinical Education Coordinator, ealthmark, worked with a health system to centralie all flex- ible endoscope reprocessing and other devices requiring high-level disinfection to a central location on the main medical campus. He cau- tions that this process cannot happen overnight as it requires careful consideration and planning. “Even though our CS/SPD historically pro- cessed flexible endoscopes it was not their prior- ity mission,” said Whelan. “And don’t assume the centralied location and existing staff have the expertise. We spent a long time educating and training staff to learn all of the different devices they would be reprocessing so they became the best practice standard bearers.” According to Whelan, education was also required on the part of clinicians. They discovered clinicians not consistently performing the necessary pre-cleaning of endoscopes before sending them to processing. The move to a centralized location could exacerbate that problem as the scopes could potentially sit for a longer period of time before decontamination. ou can factor in routine extended soaking but that isnt best for the scopes either. It would constitute moving away from what


John Whelan


is considered best practice and flexible endoscope reprocessing is already high risk,” said Whelan.


Where is offsite reprocessing headed? John Kimsey, National Director, Professional Services, STERIS, says he is seeing increased interest from ambulatory surgery centers (ACs) as they expand their procedures into orthopedics and other procedures that have typically been hospital-based. Some of these procedures require 10 trays per case, which ASCs are not designed to handle from a sterile processing perspective.


He adds that both hospitals and ASCs are


increasingly turning to offsite reprocessing of vendor trays, stating:


John Kimsey “Every hospital has the same answer when we ask how they


can benefit most from offsite reprocessing  vendor trays. ov- ing vendor trays offsite helps free up hospital CS/SPDs to handle their normal, in-house processing of instruments.” The STERIS offsite reprocessing centers receive vendor trays on behalf of the healthcare facility, clean and sterilize them, deliver them to the facility for use, then take them back after they are used to reprocess.


“With our offsite services, the facility receives sterilized in- strument trays, thus reducing the workload on their internal sterile processing departments,” said Kimsey. “We can also store vendor trays to free up space for healthcare facilities.” HPN


References:


1. ASE Statement on Protection of Patients and Echocardiography Service Providers During the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Outbreak, April 1, 2020 https://www.asecho.org/wp-content/ uploads/2020/03/COVIDStatementFINAL4-1-2020_v2_website.pdf


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viscotcs@viscot.com • www.viscot.com • 800.221.0658


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