The Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) in September released the newest version of the ANSI/AAMI ST 79 Comprehensive Guide to Steam Sterilization and Sterility Assurance in Healthcare Facilities. This document, last updated in 2013, has been under a major review for changes in the format presentation and…

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Editor's Note The Veterans Affairs Medical Center, in Buffalo, New York, is notifying 526 patients that they may be at risk of infection from improperly cleaned endoscopes, the August 16 Buffalo News reports. A recent hospital review of endoscope disinfection processes found that steps in the manufacturer’s instructions may not…

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Editor's Note The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care on July 25 released a new toolkit that focuses on flexible endoscope reprocessing failures. The toolkit is designed to help eliminate failures or lapses in reprocessing through detailed guidelines and checklists in order to mitigate the risk of patient infections. The…

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Editor's Note This Australian study finds it is a good economic decision for large healthcare facilities to invest in low-temperature systems for sterilization of steam-sterilizable endoscopes. Increased costs associated with low-temperature systems were outweighed by savings from fewer instrument repairs. Based on their calculations, the researchers estimated a savings of…

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Editor's Note Treating contaminated surgical instruments with alcohol, allowing them to dry, or allowing them to soak in water for extended periods of time increases cleaning difficulty and may contribute to sterilization inefficacy, this study finds. Soaking or spraying instruments with alcohol significantly reduced viable bacterial numbers, but significantly increased…

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Editor's Note Leading the Joint Commission’s Top Ten Challenging Standards for accredited ambulatory health care organizations during the past year was infection control standard IC.02.02.01, EP 2: The organization reduces the risk of infections associated with medical equipment, devices, and supplies by performing a high-level disinfection and sterilization. In 2016,…

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Editor's Note Techniques used to clean and sterilize flexible ureteroscopes left behind contamination that included debris, residue, and bacteria, in this study presented June 14 at the 44th Annual Conference of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control. Researchers with Ofstead & Associates (St Paul, Minnesota) sampled 16 ureteroscopes at…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on June 9 released a list of reusable devices that will require new validated instructions for use (IFU) and validation data in premarket notifications regarding cleaning, disinfection, and sterilization. These actions are effective August 8, 2017. The list includes: Bronchoscopes (flexible or…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on May 24 issued a new Quick Safety update on improperly sterilized or high-level disinfected (HLD) equipment, which continues to be a frequently scored noncompliant standard (IC 02.02.01). The update includes expanded safety actions to help leaders oversee sterilization and HLD processes and ensure that…

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Compliance with sterilization and disinfection standards is critical to patient safety, yet Joint Commission surveyors continue to cite healthcare facilities for noncompliance with high-level disinfection (HLD) and sterilization processes during accreditation surveys. Organizations with HLD and/or sterilization breaches during a survey may receive an immediate threat to life or adverse…

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