title: Computer-aided recording of automatic endoscope washing and disinfection processes as an integral part of medical documentation for quality assurance purposes.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The reprocessing of medical endoscopes is carried out using automatic cleaning and disinfection machines. The documentation and archiving of records of properly conducted reprocessing procedures is the last and increasingly important part of the reprocessing cycle for flexible endoscopes.
  
  
  METHODS
  This report describes a new computer program designed to monitor and document the automatic reprocessing of flexible endoscopes and accessories in fully automatic washer-disinfectors; it does not contain nor compensate the manual cleaning step. The program implements national standards for the monitoring of hygiene in flexible endoscopes and the guidelines for the reprocessing of medical products. No FDA approval has been obtained up to now. The advantages of this newly developed computer program are firstly that it simplifies the documentation procedures of medical endoscopes and that it could be used universally with any washer-disinfector and that it is independent of the various interfaces and software products provided by the individual suppliers of washer-disinfectors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The computer program presented here has been tested on a total of four washer-disinfectors in more than 6000 medical examinations within 9 months.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We present for the first time an electronic documentation system for automated washer-disinfectors for medical devices e.g. flexible endoscopes which can be used on any washer-disinfectors that documents the procedures involved in the automatic cleaning process and can be easily connected to most hospital documentation systems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine II, University of Witten/Herdecke, Campus Cologne-Merheim, Ostmerheimerstrasse 200, D-51109 Cologne, Germany. krakampb@kliniken-koeln.de
authors.forename: Bernd
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Krakamp
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kirschberg
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Scheding
authors.forename: Dieter
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Emmerich
authors.forename: Stefanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Klein
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Saers
mesh_terms: D004203:Disinfection / Q000592:standards*; D004282:Documentation / Q000379:methods*; D020776:Endoscopes, Gastrointestinal / Q000592:standards*; D004866:Equipment Contamination / Q000517:prevention & control; D005858:Germany; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006801:Humans; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D012984:Software