Ideas That Work: Critical Countdown

Endoscope care guidelines generally agree that dirty scopes can sit for an hour before reprocessing begins. Any longer, and bioburden is difficult to remove. To let reprocessing techs know how long scopes have sat while waiting to be cleaned and disinfected, we stick small, single-use time strips to the tops of scope transport containers. At the end of procedures, staff push the activation blister on the strips to begin a 60-minute countdown (osmag.net/3w0LoUk). The strips take the guesswork out of knowing how long scopes sit idle after procedures and help to improve reprocessing practices.

Michael Gudejko, BS
Baystate Medical Center
Springfield, Mass.
[email protected]