CDC, FDA issue health advisory on reprocessing procedures for reusable medical devices

On September 11, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an alert recommending that healthcare facilities arrange for a professional to assess their reprocessing procedures for maintaining, cleaning, disinfecting, or sterilizing reusable medical devices.

The organizations recommend reviewing current processes so that healthcare facilities are in compliance with all steps provided by device manufacturers and have in place appropriate policies and procedures, consistent with current standards and guidelines.

Among the actions the alert advises facilities to take:

• provide training to all personnel who reprocess devices
• audit adherence to cleaning, disinfection, sterilization, and device storage procedures
• have protocols to ensure that personnel can identify proper reprocessing of devices and how to respond to a reprocessing error or failure
• allow adequate time for reprocessing to ensure adherence to all device manufacturer recommended steps
• maintain documentation of reprocessing activities.

http://emergency.cdc.gov/han/han00382.asp