NHS England’s Business Plan for 2013/14 to 2015/16 titled ‘Putting Patients First’ begins with the opening statement ‘Our goal is high quality care for all, now and for future generations’, and nowhere is this seen more clearly than in the recent change to the service solution in Furness General Hospital’s Central Sterile Services and Endoscopy departments.
The team here has embraced the challenges of the NHS Business Plan including ensuring geographic equality of care, protecting patients from avoidable harm and improving efficiencies to transform the way that services are delivered, in order to oversee the instalment of an innovative future-proof decontamination solution from Cantel Medical that changes the way that Furness General serves its patients.
The team, led by Richard Greenwood, Morecambe Bay Trust’s decontamination lead, and overseen at hospital level by Dave Lee, QA training and unit manager for CSSD, has succeeded in incorporating their endoscope decontamination into Central Sterile Services with the installation of 3 RapidAER Endoscope Washer Disinfectors provided by Cantel Medical. Across the UK, the natural evolution of endoscopy services – an increasing focus on infection risks, a need to reduce waiting times for patients, and working towards achieving JAG accreditation for the bowel screening programme – was resulting in non-purpose built units like Furness General’s being overwhelmed and no longer fit for purpose.
The solution to partner with Cantel Medical, a decontamination industry leader that provides full circle endoscopy solutions, makes Barrow-in-Furness the first geography in Europe to install and run Cantel’s pioneering new way of decontaminating endoscopes that puts the patient’s and hospital’s needs first in order to ensure that all units, no matter the size or throughput, can provide the highest standards of care.
Richard’s team at Furness General had very clear requirements of their supplier: the only conceivable solution would be a pass-through solution capable of separating clean from dirty areas; due to limited space they required intelligent machinery with a very small footprint and easy access for engineers; the limited space also highlighted a need for the fastest possible cycle time to move scopes through the unit quickly; the hospital wanted to prepare itself for the future so needed flexibility to invest in the right number of machines for now, but with the option to add and expand as demand required; the team could not afford the risk of downtime in their machines so they decided to invest in a single-bay option that ensured lost reprocessing time would be minimal, as well as receiving additional protection for their unit and patients by covering the RapidAER with a Cantel maintenance and service contract.
Cantel Medical was the only company capable of meeting all of Furness General’s needs which is what makes the RapidAER solution so unique. Designed by a former engineer for the Dyson brand, the motto during the conception of RapidAER was to keep it simple. As the product began to take shape, it became clear that keeping it simple was also the answer to problems that end users of endoscope washer disinfectors were facing every day: single bay AERs would reduce the downtime required for service and validations and ensure endoscopy departments could continue their normal operational throughput without compromise; the ability to connect scopes externally was not only easier to manage but would also allow the machine to be in constant use as a scope could be processed while the next one is being loaded into its carrier; an increase in patient numbers and consequent increase in the demands on the decontamination department created a need for faster more efficient machines.
Together, the RapidAER solution from Cantel Medical and the exceptional leadership displayed by Richard and Dave within the Trust have created a work environment where trained specialists can carry out their roles with a due diligence that can only improve patient outcomes. And, as we see an environment in which the public have more and more access to information and an increased connection between the public and the government is fostered, ensuring that your Trust can be trusted is of growing importance.
The endoscopy nurse specialists, led by unit manager Suzanne Langley, are delighted with the new set up. Following the relocation of the decontamination service, the endoscopy nurses have been able to stop leaving the patient’s bedside to do the scope cleaning and focus instead on what is most important to them, patient care. They explain that the new system which divides nursing and decontamination into two specialty areas has created significant communication improvements between departments in the hospital. Sarah Wrightwebb, clinical lead for endoscopy, commented, “Between us ‘departments’, we all know what we are working towards in a day. We don’t have to settle for second best anymore…we have the best now.
For more information contact:
Medivators (A Cantel Medical company) Wolseley House, Dyson Way, Staffordshire Technology Park, Stafford ST18 0GA UK
01785 782420
www.medivators.com
