September 28, 2023
There’s a significant problem in many operating rooms across the United States: Electrosurgical devices can cause significant patient burns and life-threatening fires...
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By: Kevin Anderson
Published: 11/14/2019
With their hard-to-access cannulas and complex components, flexible endoscopes are not only difficult to clean, but also difficult to keep dry in storage. The biggest difference among scope storage products is in their complexity. You can get a basic cabinet for an affordable price, but if you really want to go all out for your patients and staff, specialized cabinets with numerous scope-friendly features are available. Here are several aspects you need to consider when deciding which level of investment is right for your facility.
My former facility recently spent around $100,000 on 3 storage cabinets. We had 46 scopes at that time, but had plans to add to our fleet. Each of the new cabinets held 20 scopes, which gave us the aggregate capacity to hang 60 scopes. Capacity can differ from vendor to vendor and model to model. With limited space, which is virtually a universal problem in our industry, a high-density storage cabinet might be your best bet. Remember: Your scopes should never touch, and they need to hang correctly, so don't go over the product's stated scope capacity.
Appropriately enough, a growing number of cabinets don't just store clean scopes, but actively dry them as well. Now that the prevailing standard is that your scopes must be stored and must be bone dry, this is a feature you should seriously consider.
Different cabinets go about drying in different ways. Some work on timers, and alert you when drying is complete; others will keep drying until they're turned off. For cabinets without built-in drying capabilities, there are separate channel drying devices you can install in the cabinet. Look for circulated air that's HEPA-filtered. Some related cabinet features and options include fluid collection trays.
Barcoding is a less expensive tracking method. If you already have a barcode tracking system, check to see if cabinet vendors have an interface for it.
Spend some time with several cabinets before you settle on a choice for your department. Get quotes from a few of the companies you think have the best products for your needs, and hopefully you'll find one that also fits your capital budget. OSM
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