Ofstead & Associates, Inc.

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.

During Q2, our team discovered 8,672 endoscope-related adverse event reports posted by the FDA. We found 6,718 were relevant to patient safety—sterile processing breaches, residual contamination, retained debris or accessories, infections, or injuries caused by defective scopes that got stuck inside patients or tore their tissue. The majority involved colonoscopes, gastroscopes, and bronchoscopes, and there were dozens of reports about infections among urology patients who had cystoscopy. Do you know if the equipment you’re using has been the subject of these adverse event reports? Have you reported any adverse events to the FDA? Did anything happen as a result? 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're #hiring a new Research Associate in Bloomington, Minnesota. This can easily be a work-from-home position. Join our real-world-research team. Apply today or share this post with your network.

Researchers at Henry Ford Health recently published an outbreak of NDM+ E. coli associated with duodenoscopes and gastroscopes. Check out Abby Smart's newest YouTube Short to find out what happened! https://lnkd.in/gsvQgFV6

If you’re curious about the ultrasound probe presentation Frank Daniels and Cori Ofstead gave on the big stage at HSPA, take a peek at the YouTube video “Dare to probe your probes!” (https://lnkd.in/gBEYNGUD) to see why sterile processing and infection prevention managers should get involved with probe cleaning and disinfection. We also have two free CE webinars on our educational portal (“Ultrasound probes 101: Challenges with probe processing and implications for patient safety” and “Ultrasound probes 201: Common sense strategies for ultrasound probe quality management”). Check them out! (https://lnkd.in/eiyZzT3)

If you didn’t get to attend the session with Steven Adams and Cori Ofstead at HSPA on the nasty stuff found inside surgical instrument lumens, you can watch the YouTube video “Suctions and shavers – oh my!” (https://lnkd.in/gcW3cyHi) to get a sense of why inspection with borescopes is essential.   If you’d like to earn free CE, watch a more in-depth webinar about the real-world study on lumens on our educational portal (https://lnkd.in/gS-8uSKv).