I had never thought of this.... until I read about a study done last year, in which:
" Three out of 20 flexible gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopes used for screening were found to harbor unacceptable levels of “bio dirt” – cells and matter from a patient’s body that could pose potential infection risk -- according to a study of endoscopes used at five hospitals across the U.S.
In an abstract that was presented at the 40th Annual Conference of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), researchers in the 3M Infection Prevention Division analyzed 275 flexible duodenoscopes, gastroscopes, and colonoscopes and found that 30 percent, 24 percent, and 3 percent respectively did not pass a cleanliness rating.
'Three out of 20 is an unexpectedly high number of endoscopes failing a cleanliness criterion,' said Marco Bommarito, PhD, lead investigator and lead research specialist, 3M Infection Prevention Division. 'Clearly, we’d like no endoscopes to fail a cleanliness rating.' "
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http://apic.org/For-Media/News-Releases/Article?id=105610bb-229c-4fbb-bf2b-3870eb159e9e
Does anyone know more about that study? All I know is what the APIC stated - has there been follow up?
So now this is definitely something I'm concerned about, and will be something I discuss with my GI before I'm scoped again (none scheduled at the moment).
Some blog I was reading mentioned that some hospitals/clinics use single-use covers on scopes, but that's not a widespread practice. Anyone had a scope where they used a single-use cover?