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Bridget M. Kuehn

JAMA. 2009;302(16):1743.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Nearly all Veterans Health Administration facilities demonstrated proper cleaning of endoscopic equipment and documented that all relevant staff had been properly trained on such disinfection during a series of unannounced visits to 129 such facilities in August by officials from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of the Inspector General.

During a similar set of surprise inspections at a sample of 42 VA medical centers in May, fewer than half of the facilities were following appropriate protocols for cleaning endoscopic equipment and for documenting staff training (http://www.va.gov/oig/54/reports/VAOIG-09-01784-146.pdf). The August inspections included all facilities that perform colonoscopy that were not previously inspected, as well as those that failed the May inspection (http://www.va.gov/oig/54/reports/VAOIG-09-02848-218.pdf).

The May inspection was conducted after more than 10 000 veterans were potentially exposed to blood-borne infections at 3 VA medical centers where endoscopy equipment had not been properly sanitized between patients. . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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