Ann Nurs Primary Care | Volume 1, Issue 1 | Review Article | Open Access

Investigating Reasons of Positive Surveillance Rate of the Flexible Endoscope in the Operation Room

Ju Hsiang Wu1 and Mei Yun Yu2*

1Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, Taiwan
2School of Nursing, Fooyin University, Taiwan

*Correspondance to: Mei Yun Yu 

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Abstract

Flexible endoscopes are semi critical medical devices since they encounter mucous membranes during the diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Due to the sophisticated design of flexible endoscopes with long and narrow lumens, they are difficult to clean and disinfect. This difficulty would be an infection source for patients underwent flexible endoscopes related procedures. This investigation proceeded to understand the reasons induced positive surveillance rate in a medical center in Taiwan. Reasons include three aspects 1. Personnel aspects include incorrectness of manual cleaning process, Insufficient cleaning process education and training and without special-assigned stuff in charge of flexible cleaning duty. 2. Environmental issues include improper storage space, and the endoscope storage cabinet has no temperature and humidity detection and cleaning and disinfection. 3. Operational elements involve lacking washing machine; staffs misinterpreted OPA concentration test, OPA test strip validity period was incorrectly marked, Flexible endoscopes and storage boxes did not precede terminal disinfection procedure regularly. Since the advanced technology of flexible endoscopes is on the cutting age, the potential infection resources should be resolved for nosocomial infection control and patient safety reasons. Creating a holistic program to reduce the positive surveillance rate on every single potential reason would be the next achievement efforts toward patient safety and nosocomial infection control.

Citation:

Wu JH, Yu MY. Investigating Reasons of Positive Surveillance Rate of the Flexible Endoscope in the Operation Room. Ann Nurs Primary Care. 2018; 1(1): 1009.

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