Ofstead & Associates, Inc.

The Ofstead team has been expanding our research beyond endoscopes and probes, and we were delighted that American Journal of Infection Control (AJIC) just released our study on ortho/neuro/ENT instruments! The pre-publication proof is free (open-access) at https://lnkd.in/gweFkyrN. See for yourself what we found inside surgical instruments when we collaborated with Jill Holdsworth, CIC,FAPIC,NREMT,CRCST, CHL, Brandon Gantt, MHA, CRCST, LSSGBH, and Dr. Kevin Bush, Jr., MSHA, MA, MS, FACHE, at Emory University Hospital Midtown and Emory Healthcare to inspect lumens with Healthmark borescopes. It’s like taking a tour of an alien spaceship, with bizarre architecture and nooks & crannies that are virtually impossible to clean! The findings highlight the need to consider cleanability when designing medical instruments and devices. APIC; HSPA; AORN; AAMI; FDA; Steven Adams; Frank Daniels; Jahan Azizi; Terra Kremer

UPDATE: Our borescope repair cost paper is now free to download! Here is the link to the free PDF: https://lnkd.in/gctVjkWj Have you been wondering if your repair costs will skyrocket when you start using a borescope for routine inspections? And will borescope use bottleneck your department and reduce endoscope availability for procedures? Now you can see findings from a groundbreaking study that was just published in AAMI’s Biomedical Instrumentation and Technology (BI&T) journal. It was conducted in collaboration with Frank Daniels at VCU Health, which has more than 500 flexible endoscopes. They’ve been performing routine borescope inspections on every scope, every time for more than three years – totaling more than 109,000 inspections. Here’s a couple of key takeaways: -         The proportion of scopes needing major repairs decreased over time -         The turnaround time for repairs decreased significantly -         The overall cost for repairs decreased by hundreds of thousands of dollars -         The facility was able to decrease endoscope fleet size without diminishing procedural availability

UPDATE: Our borescope repair cost paper is now free to download! Here is the link to the free PDF: https://lnkd.in/gctVjkWj Have you been wondering if your repair costs will skyrocket when you start using a borescope for routine inspections? And will borescope use bottleneck your department and reduce endoscope availability for procedures? Now you can see findings from a groundbreaking study that was just published in AAMI’s Biomedical Instrumentation and Technology (BI&T) journal. It was conducted in collaboration with Frank Daniels at VCU Health, which has more than 500 flexible endoscopes. They’ve been performing routine borescope inspections on every scope, every time for more than three years – totaling more than 109,000 inspections. Here’s a couple of key takeaways: -         The proportion of scopes needing major repairs decreased over time -         The turnaround time for repairs decreased significantly -         The overall cost for repairs decreased by hundreds of thousands of dollars -         The facility was able to decrease endoscope fleet size without diminishing procedural availability

Here are the Q4 numbers for 2024: FDA posted 8,903 adverse event reports related to endoscopes in the last three months, for a total of 35,039 in 2024 -- a 14% increase from 2023’s previous record year! There were >5,000 reports about problems with upper and lower GI scopes, with >2,000 for bronchoscopes and >750 for ERCP scopes. No type of scope was unscathed, with hundreds for urology scopes, too. While it’s troubling to see so many outbreaks, injuries, reprocessing failures, etc., it’s heartening that manufacturers, facilities, and healthcare providers are recognizing the need for transparency. Most of the adverse events could have been prevented. My number one recommendation to improve patient safety is for front-line personnel is to inspect every scope, every time! If you don’t know how to find or file adverse event reports, you can watch our YouTube for some quick pointers (https://lnkd.in/gv8MiTpg) or earn CE credits by watching our free webinar on using the FDA MAUDE database (https://lnkd.in/gnEz7CjS).

Have you been wondering if your repair costs will skyrocket when you start using a borescope for routine inspections? And will borescope use bottleneck your department and reduce endoscope availability for procedures? Now you can see findings from a groundbreaking study that was just published in AAMI's Biomedical Instrumentation and Technology (BI&T) journal. It was conducted in collaboration with Frank Daniels at VCU Health, which has more than 500 flexible endoscopes. They’ve been performing routine borescope inspections on every scope, every time for more than three years – totaling more than 109,000 inspections. Here’s a couple of key takeaways: -         The proportion of scopes needing major repairs decreased over time -         The turnaround time for repairs decreased significantly -         The overall cost for repairs decreased by hundreds of thousands of dollars -         The facility was able to decrease endoscope fleet size without diminishing procedural availability The abstract provides key details about the methods and findings, and the full-length article is available free for AAMI members who login: https://lnkd.in/ghd9jwMj

Ever wondered how to optimize your training programs for front-line healthcare personnel to help them master complex skills? Ofstead & Associates, Inc. partnered with HSPA and the HSPA Foundation to develop a new educational framework to fast-track competency development in using borescopes for visual inspection of endoscopes. We evaluated its effectiveness by tracking trainees’ knowledge, skills, and confidence levels for a year. And guess what? The program worked—and had an impact on front-line practices and patient safety! See the results for yourself by watching our new YouTube video “Innovations in training for sterile processing” https://lnkd.in/gkEUGVkB While you’re on our Ofstead Insights YouTube channel, remember to subscribe!

Here we go—the numbers for Q3: FDA posted 8,719 endoscope-related adverse event reports this quarter, and my team classified 5,279 as relevant to patient safety—sterile processing breaches, residual contamination, retained debris or accessories, infections, or injuries caused by defective scopes. That brings us to over 34,000 in the past year! Colonoscopes were at the top of the heap this time, with more than 3,000 reports! There were thousands of adverse events related to gastroscopes and bronchoscopes, too. Oddly, 17% of the reports were missing the event description and narrative, and we hope the manufacturers update those blank documents. If you don’t know how to find reports on the FDA database—or file them when things go wrong—you can watch our YouTube for some quick pointers (https://lnkd.in/gv8MiTpg).

We’ve had a few inquiries about a recent study we did in collaboration with Jill Holdsworth, CIC,FAPIC,NREMT,CRCST, CHL and her team at Emory Healthcare—recently published in AAMI's BI&T journal. Watch Abby Smart’s recap of key study findings on detecting protein residue inside endoscopes. https://lnkd.in/gh8qeAcw

AAMI s BI&T journal just published the findings of a study our team performed in collaboration with Emory Healthcare and the Emory Midtown research team of Jill Holdsworth, CIC,FAPIC,NREMT,CRCST, CHL, Aaron Preston, Kari Love RN MS CIC FAPIC, and Charesse James! We evaluated a new system for determining if endoscope channels are still dirty after manual cleaning, and found that more protein was harvested when the turbulent fluid flow system was used than when samples were collected by simply flushing the channels. Here’s a link to the paper—it’s open access and free to download. https://lnkd.in/gZ7n5KVY

My colleagues and I are happy to share some good news—we have a new research team member! Lydia H. has a Bachelor’s degree with majors in biology and psychology, and she’s worked in research labs. She’s starting to build her LinkedIn network and welcomes new connections. Please give her a warm welcome.