Health Technology Hazards, 2016: Inadequate Disinfection of Flexible Endoscopes Tops ECRI List

hazard/jasleen kaur, via Flickr hazard/jasleen kaur, via Flickr

The ECRI Institute has released its Top 10 Health Technology Hazards for 2016 report, highlighting health technology hazards for health care facilities and nurses to focus on this year.

Although alarm hazards, which topped the list for the past four years, still pose a significant threat, topping the list at number two, a different repeat offender has claimed the number one spot: inadequate cleaning of flexible endoscopes before disinfection.

Proper reprocessing and cleaning of biologic debris and other foreign material from instruments before sterilization is key, according to the report. And flexible endoscopes, especially duodenoscopes, are difficult to clean because of their long, narrow channels. Failure to clean properly can result in the spread of pathogens. The report points to a series of fatal carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae infections in the last two years to illustrate this particular threat, and recommends that facilities emphasize to their reprocessing staff that inattention to proper cleaning steps can lead to deadly infections.

Some hazards, such as those arising from health information technology (HIT) issues, insufficient training of clinicians in operating room technologies, and failure to appropriately operate intensive care ventilators, have been touched on in previous years. (See our past posts on ECRI top 10 health technology hazards from 2013, 2014, […]

2016-11-21T13:01:33-05:00January 14th, 2016|Nursing|3 Comments
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Long-Distance Coaching

Patrice Gopo is a writer living in North Carolina.

The author Patrice Gopo

Moments ago I’d been crouching on my bed, but now I lay wrapped in a thick duvet. My panting began to slow to a normal cadence. Then a sharp rush. My midsection hardened, followed by intense cramping. With a swift motion, I moved from lying on the bed back to all fours.

“Find your point and focus.”

I heard my mother’s words through the speakers of the computer. My eyes locked on where the edge of the metal curtain rod met the white wall.

Around me, voices and images drifted away.

Before I gave birth to my first child, I didn’t know that between a tightening abdomen and waves of pain, Skype conversations were possible.

While I appreciated that technology could bring someone distant close, my mother wasn’t supposed to be a face on the computer. She was meant to be by my side and not in a living room 10,000 miles away. But my daughter had decided to slide down the birth canal 12 days before expected.

My mother describes herself as a practical person. “I’m a nurse. It’s in the job description,” she often says. When pregnant with her own firstborn—my older sister—her contractions began in the midst of an overnight shift in the labor and delivery unit. She completed the night’s job […]

2016-11-21T13:03:15-05:00January 9th, 2015|Nursing, nursing perspective, patient engagement, Patients|2 Comments
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