The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care released a toolkit aimed at eliminating discrepancies in flexible endoscope reprocessing
Here's what you should know:
1. The toolkit is designed to help healthcare organizations review their reprocessing policies and procedures to prevent patient infection.
2. Inadequately reprocessed endoscopes expose patients to potential cross contamination.
AAAHC Institute Vice President and Senior Director Naomi Kuznets, PhD, said in a release, "Over the last several decades, we have seen an increase in the number of failures or lapses in flexible endoscope reprocessing as well as patient infections reported. The costs of these failures include patient morbidity, mortality, pain and suffering, and decreased productivity, as well as legal, testing and treatment costs."
3. AAAHC's toolkit provides a program outline that compiles with AAAHC standards as well as several recommendations from leading professional organizations.
4. The toolkit is based around three steps:
- Determine the amount of risk your current program has
- Develop a training plan to address issues
- Monitor the program for correct execution
For more details on the guidelines or to purchase the toolkit, click here.