Cross-contamination from flexible endoscopes tops ECRI Institute's annual list of the Top 10 Health Technology Hazards, as the organization warns healthcare facilities to adhere to proper cleaning, disinfection and sterilization guidelines for these devices.

ECRI says it bases the annual rankings "on the likelihood and severity of the reports we've received over the past year, the recalls and other actions we've reviewed, and our continuing examination of the published literature." Flexible endoscope contamination went from being absent from last year's list to the current No. 1, suggesting this problem — or awareness of it — is on the rise. "The best defense" against this hazard, according to ECRI, is the "careful development of and strict adherence to comprehensive, model-specific reprocessing protocols."

Here is the full list of ECRI's 2010 Top 10 Technology Hazards, plus some links to recent OSM articles with advice on how to prevent them:

1. Cross-contamination from flexible endoscopes.

2. Faulty or ineffective alarms on monitors, ventilators and other medical devices.

3. Surgical fires.

4. High CT radiation doses that can expose patients to cancer risks.

5. Retained objects, including both entire devices and fragments unknowingly broken off of a device or instrument.

6. Sharps injuries.

7. Problems with computers and health IT, for example, incorrectly processed images and medication errors generated from automated systems.

8. Surgical stapler hazards, primarily caused by user error.

9. Ferromagnetic objects in the MR environment.

10. Burns from fiberoptic light sources, including both the lights themselves and heated cable connections.

A free download of ECRI's article detailing all the hazards on the list and how to prevent them is available here.

Irene Tsikitas