Delays in Endoscope Reprocessing … and the Biofilms Within
Endoscope reprocessing can be time-consuming and technically complex. All efforts should be made to decrease the amount of time that lapses between reprocessing steps as much as possible.
Apart from local guidance, there are often timing requirements for reprocessing set by the endoscope manufacturer. Olympus Corporation mandates a maximum gap of 60 minutes between pre-cleaning and the start of manual cleaning in its endoscopes’ instructions for use (IFU).
Please note that this white paper is based on the United States perspective and research. It provides some background information on why time management is so crucial to ensuring patient safety.