25 September 2011

Choosing from a range of washer disinfectors

By Andrew Ely


All Washer disinfectors (WD's) are designed for the purpose of cleaning and thermally disinfecting re-usable medical devices which are likely to have come into contact with hazardous substances, blood or body fluids; e.g. dental handpieces, syringes and surgical instruments. Advice can be sought from the device manufacturer with regards to the instructions for reprocessing.

Integrating mechanical washing into the practice decontamination protocol provides a high level of safety, particularly against the risk of skin puncture injuries which occur during the hand washing, rinsing, and drying of contaminated instruments.

To provide a high level of safety, particularly against the risk of skin puncture injuries which occur during the hand washing, rinsing, and drying of contaminated instruments then it is best to integrate mechanical washing into the practice decontamination protocol provides a

Washer disinfectors should be fitted with an automatic printer or data logger that will record all critical cycle data. If the washer disinfector does not have a printer or data logger a process log should be made by the operator / user. Records should be retained as evidence that the unit has indicated a clear PASS result and should be reviewed regularly to ensure that all cycle parameters have been met (time and temperature).

In addition to the above, washer disinfectors should also be subject to a series of periodic validation tests, performed by a suitably trained Test Person or Service Engineer. Documents published by Health Technical Memoranda including HTM 2030 and HTM 0105 provide advice on installation, validation, periodic testing, operation and maintenance for washer disinfectors used throughout the National Health Service (NHS) and dental industry. Other useful sources of information may include the Medical Devices Agency and Department of Health websites.

To ensure that the washer disinfector continues to perform as intended some local authorities recommend that a series of routine tests are performed by the operator / user, this may include; residual soil test and residual protein test. Advice on the suitability of tests should be sought from the equipment manufacturer.




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