Non-Compliant Medical Device Decontamination and the associated issues

Mr George Koning¹

¹BioClinical Services, Hobart, Australia

Background :

Medical Devices have been exposed to unprecedented decontamination over the last 24 months , performed by support staff with no in-service training and education staff  have failed to recognise the significance of these individuals roll in find the balance between infection prevention and damage to expensive medical equipment and their accessories and transducers .

Methods :

I reviewed 5 yrs. of medical device recalls from 2015 using MHRA , TGA looking for pattens related to the types of equipment and causes .

Results :

Due to large variances in the market share for individual makes and models it’s not possible to identify a device category ( ie ventilators or infusion pumps ) been more affected than another . Two key issues identified are related to manufacturing processes and design of the devices and in hospital decontamination processes , both of which will be discussed .

Conclusion :

By examining design and manufacturing issues within a single make it is possible to make informed decisions which will ensure support staff can avoid fluid ingress damage on similar devices , often within the same category .

The manufacturers Cleaning and Decontamination Instructions are the gold standard with respect to these processes and by ensuring all staff have access to this information 24/7 organisations are one step closer to change the culture associated with non-compliant cleaning

Biography:

I am a Biomedical Engineering Technician with over 20 yrs experience , working for both manufacturers and hospitals – in 2009 I created the Clinical Equipment User Manual Library to support tech savvy nurses and clinicians , our service is currently used by over 200 hospitals in Australia and the UK , including NSW eHealth – CiAP