In order to promote the implementation of the three standards of central sterile supply department (CSSD), new standards for cleaning and disinfection/sterilization of flexible endoscope, dental instruments, and environmental surface in healthcare, this article elaborates about central management of CSSD; management of loaners and implants; technique of autoclave sterilization, ethylene oxide sterilization, and hydrogen peroxide sterilization; high level disinfection or sterilization of flexible endoscope; disinfection and sterilization of dental instruments; daily and enhanced cleaning and disinfection of environmental surface in healthcare facilities. This could help clinical healthcare workers to implement these new standards, effectively prevent nosocomical infection, and guarantee the personal safety of patients.
Objective Using the evidence-based management to manage the flexible endoscope based on the data collected by information means, to reduce the rate of serious faults and control maintenance costs. Methods From January 2017 to December 2018, we collected and analyzed the flexible endoscope data of the use, leak detection, washing and disinfection, and maintenance between 2015 and 2018 from the Gastroenterology Department of our hospital. Three main causes of flexible endoscope faults were found: delayed leak detection, irregular operation, and physical/chemical wastage. Management schemes (i.e., leak detection supervision, fault tracing, and reliability maintenance) were enacted according to these reasons. These schemes were improved continuously in the implementation. Finally, we calculated the changes of the fault rate of each grade and the maintenance cost. Results By two years management practice, compared with those from 2015 to 2016, the annual rates of grade A and grade C faults of flexible endoscope from 2017 to 2018 decreased by 10.3% and 16.7% respectively, and the annual average maintenance cost fell by 53.2%. Conclusions The maintenance costs of flexible endoscope could be effectively controlled by enacting and implementing a series of targeted management schemes based on the data from the root causes of faults applying the evidence-based management. Evidence-based management based on data has a broad application prospect in the management of medical equipment faults.
Objective To describe the current state of hospital infection prevention and control for flexible endoscope in Shanghai, and analyze the trend of infection prevention and control quality from 2018 to 2022. Methods According to Regulation for Cleaning and Disinfection Technique of Flexible Endoscope (WS 507－2016), the quality of infection prevention and control for flexible endoscope was divided into seven parts: organizational management, layout, cleaning and disinfection (sterilization) process, environmental disinfection and sterilization, final rinse water, recording and monitoring, and occupational protection. Each quality control item was judged according to the on-site score and the correction opinion, and the item with correction opinion was judged as “unqualified”, otherwise it was “qualified”. The results of the infection prevention and control quality supervision for flexible endoscope from 2018 to 2022 were reviewed and analyzed, and the qualification rates of quality control items for hospitals at different levels and in different years were calculated. Results From 2018 to 2022, the total qualification rates of organization management, final rinse water, environmental disinfection and sterilization, and occupational protection were over 90%, and the total qualification rates of cleaning and disinfection (sterilization) process, and records and monitoring were over 80%. There was no statistically significant difference in the annual qualification rate (P>0.05). The total qualification rate of the layout was 78.19%, which was significantly higher before the outbreak of COVID-19 (2018-2019) than after the outbreak of COVID-19 (2020-2022) (P<0.001). There was no significant difference in the qualification rate of different levels of hospitals in terms of organizational management, layout, cleaning and disinfection (sterilization) process, records and monitoring, or occupational protection item (P>0.05). There were statistical differences in the qualification rates of different levels of hospitals in terms of final rinse water and environmental disinfection and sterilization (P<0.05). Conclusions The infection prevention and control qualification rate of flexible endoscope in Shanghai is high. However, the layout qualification rate after the COVID-19 pandemic is lower than before. There has been no significant trend in the quality of other items in the past five years. Weaknesses in the cleaning and disinfection (sterilization) process, as well as in recording and monitoring, are identified as key areas in management. Targeted training and supervision are recommended to address these weaknesses.