Physicians East
From soaking to the trophon®2 device
About the Facility
Physicians East is a very large, multi-specialty practice servicing Eastern North Carolina. They have a primary imaging center within the main location (Arlington), as well as a Urology clinic. The imaging center performs transvaginal and vascular procedures, in addition to general imaging ultrasound. The Urology clinic performs prostate imaging.
From soaking to the trophon®2 device
Prior to implementing trophon2 devices for reprocessing their ultrasound probes, both departments were soaking their probes. The toxicity of this chemical for staff and patients was a concern, and the team was impressed with the trophon2 device’s automation, and use of sonically-activated hydrogen peroxide. The facility ultimately purchased two trophon2 units and has been using them for more than a year.
trophon2 Benefits: Workflow Efficiencies, Traceability, Audit-Readiness
“We love the trophon device’s ability to do work while we move on to other tasks.”Kerri ScottLead Sonographer, Physicians East
The soaking station required a tech to stay at the station for the soaking and rinsing steps dressed in PPE. The trophon2 device’s automated 7-minute cycle allows the technicians to complete other aspects of their workflow during the reprocessing.
The team loves the fact that the trophon2 device automatically captures not only the time and date of the cycle, but also the lot and serial numbers of the chemicals and prints them on a label. The operator cards and transducer tags allow the lab to effortlessly associate patient information to probe serial number. Both general lab and urology lab techs stated that their traceability is much more complete – resulting in greater confidence should an audit challenge present.
Kerri also pointed out that trophon2 devices reduce the risk of cross-contamination, because both the probe and handle are high-level disinfected.
“The use of the trophon2 chemical indicator makes us feel more comfortable with the automated pass/fail status after each individual cycle – eliminating any guesswork or risk of human error. When we were soaking our probes, we ended up wasting a lot of expired chemical material, so at our volume of procedures, the trophon2 device makes our processes more cost-efficient.”Kerri ScottLead Sonographer, Physicians East
Outcomes
By implementing trophon2 devices for HLD of their ultrasound probes, Physicians East was able to streamline their workflow, and improve their disinfection traceability across both departments. This resulted in time-savings, improved cost efficiency, and higher confidence in proper high level disinfection.
