Our customers regularly ask us specific questions about vapor and fume control, which has been PCI Medical's area of expertise since 1995.  That said, this week’s blog is dedicated to fume and ventilation standards associated with high-level disinfectants.

Before we delve into the high-level disinfection process, let’s review the highlights that we covered last week in Part 1: 

A few weeks ago we took you through the necessary steps for cleaning ultrasound transducers in How to Clean an Ultrasound Probe. One person aptly coined it “Ultrasound 101.” Despite its simplicity, cleaning is a fundamental step that cannot be skipped before you disinfect. We’re now raising the bar and bringing to you Ultrasound 201 (!) to tackle the crux of the process - the actual disinfection. Since there’s a lot to cover, we’ve broken this up into two parts.

A recent issue of 24x7 Ultrasound features an interview with Orla Concannon, Marketing Manager at PCI Medical. Orla offers maintenace tips for your GUS Disinfection Soak Station and shares some of PCI's latest innovations. The article can be read in its entirety below or on 24x7.

 “It is important that all spills, including drips and splashes, be cleaned up immediately.” *

Philip Coles, President of PCI Medical, was interviewed in the August issue of Surgical Products. Philip discusses the important steps and challenges related to instrument reprocessing, both with endoscopes and ultrasound probes. The article can be read here or below.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the trend in healthcare services has shifted significantly from inpatient hospital settings to ambulatory and community-based settings.¹ In 2007, almost a billion visits were made to office-based physician practices.² 

PCI customers often ask us questions related to the temperature of their high-level disinfectants.  Some questions are commonly asked about how to maintain the temperature of the high level disinfectant, how to measure its temperature or how to record it.  Let’s address the questions surrounding this common topic, one by one.  

Cleaning is the first step in the high-level disinfection process of an ultrasound endocavity transducer, commonly called a probe. Healthcare workers use ‘pre-cleaning’ and ‘cleaning’ interchangeably. Properly cleaning the probe optimizes the disinfection process and ‘must always be performed prior to sterilization and high-level disinfection.’¹ If you skip this simple step or perform it inadequately, you will easily compromise the entire disinfection or sterilization procedure.

It is illegal in many states and areas to dump untreated disinfectants. Not only is it illegal, but it is dangerous! PCI Medical's whitepaper looks at the safe disposal of high level disinfectants such as Cidex OPA, Cidex and other similar  disinfectants.