Problems Existing In Medical Equipment Cleaning

The cleaning of medical equipment is an essential link in any medical system, and it involves the safety of patients. Therefore, problems must be discovered in time to prevent medical accidents from happening. Let's talk about what problems should be paid attention to.
 

(1) Improper handling of equipment after use

For medical devices contaminated with blood, pus, body fluids, secretions, etc., cannot be rinsed with water immediately, so that the pollutants dry and solidify on the device, making cleaning difficult. Instruments contaminated with the above pollutants in use should be rinsed with water immediately after use, and should be disposed of within 2 hours if they cannot be flushed.

(2) The impact of disinfection after cleaning

Sterilizing blood-carrying instruments with heat above 90°C or with aldehyde-based disinfectant will cause protein coagulation, which will make the contaminants adhere more firmly, making cleaning difficult. These problems often occur in manual cleaning processes, and the use of automatic cleaning machines for cleaning, disinfection, and cleaning in a continuous process can overcome these problems.

(3) Improper selection and use of cleaning agents

If the medical supplies after use are contaminated with inorganic substances, acid detergents should be used for cleaning; if organic substances are contaminated, alkaline detergents should be chosen; if organic substances are contaminated and the structure of the equipment is complex, biological enzyme detergents should be chosen. The main problems with the use of cleaning agents are:

Ⅰ. Enzyme lotion is prepared and used repeatedly for many times, which will not only reduce the cleaning effect but also may cause secondary pollution;

Ⅱ. Insufficient amount of detergent or too low concentration will lead to reduced cleaning ability;

Ⅲ. Improper temperature control during enzyme washing will affect the effect of enzyme washing. Enzyme lotion cannot fully activate the enzyme activity when the water temperature is lower than 30 °C. When the water temperature is higher than 50 °C, the enzyme will lose part of its activity, and the loss of enzyme activity will increase with the increase in temperature. until it disappears completely.

(4) The cleaning method is not standardized

Medical device cleaning should not only consider the pollution situation but also consider the performance, structure, material, and other factors of the device. It cannot be considered that as long as there is an automatic cleaning machine, there is no need for manual medical cleaning brush cleaning, and it cannot be considered that enzyme lotion is a panacea. A few cleaning operators put the jointed instruments in the closed state and put them into the machine for cleaning; some instruments with lumen are mixed with other instruments and put into the cleaning machine. These operations do not meet the requirements of the specification.