title: Loaner instrumentation: processing the unknown.
abstract: The use of loaner instrumentation is a growing phenomenon in today's expanding health care environment. Central processing department personnel at Walter Reed Medical Center, Washington, DC, undertook a project to determine if loaner instrumentation coming into the facility had been decontaminated. Sixteen percent of the loaner instruments tested were positive for blood residue. The results of this project were used to strengthen internal standard operating procedures and to alert the hospital's infection control committee of a potential safety problem.
authors.affiliation: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas G
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Winthrop
authors.forename: Barbara A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Sion
authors.forename: Clifford
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gaines
mesh_terms: D004219:District of Columbia; D004866:Equipment Contamination; D017743:Equipment Reuse; D006772:Hospitals, Military; D006801:Humans; D008421:Materials Management, Hospital; D013525:Surgical Instruments / Q000592:standards*