When UCLA's Ronald Reagan Medical Center in Los Angeles experienced an outbreak of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) infections from contaminated duodenoscopes, the problem wasn't caused by shoddy scope reprocessing, according to an article on the Outpatient Surgery website.

Standard brushes used in scope reprocessing can't completely clean the crevices in scopes' elevator mechanisms.

"We will not tolerate infections transmitted by the devices we use. Even though the number is low, it is not one we can allow. (However), "We have limited short-term options to put in place to protect our patients," Michael L. Kochman, MD, FACP, the chair of the American Gastroenterological Association's Center for GI Innovation and Technology, said in the article.

Safer scopes will be a function of better design, standardized equipment and instructions, trained and certified reprocessors, policies that allow them the time to complete their responsibilities, protocols that include process testing and documentation and a continued eye on standards, surveys and warnings, according to one expert.

Read the article.