Just over a year ago, new AAMI ST91 guidelines were released to healthcare facilities. The new document revised ambiguous endoscope processing guidelines to increase competency and patient safety. Additionally, the guide was designed to serve as “comprehensive guidance to achieve best practice for each stage of processing flexible endoscopes.”
The revisions are based on new advancements in medical instrumentation as well as medical research that shows “outbreaks of multi-drug resistant organism infections related to flexible endoscopes.” The study revealed that the complex, sophisticated devices were failing to pass multiple reprocessing steps which significantly impacted patient safety. Furthermore, additional academic publications documented multiple breaches in processing that resulted in subsequent infections.
While new AAMI ST91 guidelines will help to mitigate these risks (and subsequently improve patient safety and facility compliance), healthcare facilities can take it one step further by having an electronic tracking solution in place. Below, we’ll discuss the new requirements and recommendations processing teams need to be aware of as well as how an electronic solution like CensiTrac helps you stay compliant.
The in-depth AAMI ST91 standards includes several requirements and recommendations for healthcare facilities to meet if they want to be AAMI compliant. These guidelines include:
It’s not yet mandatory for healthcare facilities to comply with all new guidelines outlined in AAMI ST91. However, Mary Ann Drosnock, Director of Clinical Affairs at Healthmark Industries, encourages facilities to start taking steps now to meet the new standards. “The words within the document mean something,” she said. “If it says ‘shall’ or ‘must’, these are requirements that need to be met as soon as possible. If it says ‘should’, it’s a recommendation.”
Mary Ann encourages organizations to complete an in-depth review of the document to determine what is required and what is recommended and then perform a gap analysis. “This will help you determine where the low-hanging fruit is and what you can do now to improve your facility.”
With numerous new guidelines to meet, healthcare facilities who rely on paper-processes or Excel spreadsheets to track cleaning and sterilization processes are likely to become overwhelmed. Electronic tracking software like CensiTrac and ScopeTrac Advanced capture and track the entire cleaning process and provides verification in seconds, enabling facilities to easily meet new compliance requirements.
Kelly Swails, Director of Clinical Services at Censis Technologies, described how Censis tracks instruments throughout the sterilization process: “Censis timestamps technician actions so everyone can see exactly when endoscopes were cleaned, dried, and stored.” (Timestamps, incidentally, are a new requirement included in AAMI ST91.) Prior to a procedure beginning, OR staff can quickly pull up reports and verify endoscopes have been properly cleaned, high-level disinfected, dried, and stored prior to starting a procedure. This significantly reduces patient risk and streamlines the verification process.
Kelly went on to describe how the tracking system can help facilities improve training and education to reduce patient safety risks. “Rather than digging through ‘dirty paper’ to find past information, you can get insights in just a few seconds,” she said. She gave the example of looking at an increase in improperly dried scopes and attributing it to a single employee. Training can then be given to this employee, eliminating the risk and helping the facility be compliant.
For organizations looking to use CensiTrac or ScopeTrac Advanced as their electronic documentation system, Kelly has some advice for getting started. “Use the system for cleaning, cleaning verification tests, high-level disinfection and drying,” Kelly said. “Document each of those processes.” She described that by documenting these processes, facilities can quickly understand where inefficiencies lie and how to mitigate them.
While some AAMI ST91 guidelines are not yet mandatory, it’s highly recommended for healthcare facilities to start now. Censis helps you get started with in-depth documentation and tracking tools. Staff can easily drill down into data to verify instruments have gone through all necessary cleaning steps as well as review previous data to remedy inefficiencies or errors.
Want to learn more about how Censis helps you meet industry compliance requirements? Contact a representative today.