GI Quality Tip: Don’t Quantify Brushing

Tip: Shaun Sweeney, vice president of sales and marketing for Cygnus Medical, which specializes in products and services for the endoscopy suite, operating room and sterile processing department, says another pitfall GI/endoscopy-driven ASCs run into is brushing scopes with a preconceived notion of how many times to brush. Some manufacturers present this as a marketing benefit, suggesting a brush only needs one pass through a channel. The number of times a scope must be brushed is completely dependent on how much gross contamination is present in the scope and whether it has had time to dry in the channels. The number of passes of the brush will depend on a multitude of factors, such as the amount of contamination, size of the brush, number of bristles and density of the bristles. Considering the variance in brush features and given that there is no published standard on how many times to brush a scope, Mr. Sweeney says GI/endoscopy-driven ASCs shouldn’t quantify the number of times to brush but instead brush until there is no more debris exiting the scope.

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“When you look at Society of Gastroenterology Nurses and Associates’ video, they make it very clear not to pre-quantify the number of passes,” Mr. Sweeney says. “Brushing is done underwater, so while you are brushing your scope, you can see if anything is coming out because it will float around in the water. Brushing underwater allows some visibility, and that’s a standard that each manager of an endoscopy suites needs to address with their decontamination technicians.”

Mr. Sweeney adds GI/endoscopy-driven ASCs should take extra precaution in ensuring brushing is always done underwater. Not doing so will lead to flicking of contaminated water particles into the air, causing reintroduction of contamination into an ASC facility.

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