How to Handle the Colonoscopy Surge

This is a hectic time to run a GI center, isn't it? As you keep pace with newly scheduled colonoscopies and work through a backlog of postponed procedures, know the stakes are high for managing and maintaining a full schedule of screenings. In October 2020, the surgery center management firm AMSURG reported 200,000 of its patients had missed their scheduled colonoscopies since the start of the pandemic. That's alarming when you consider about 850 out of every 200,000 colonoscopy patients get diagnosed with colon cancer.

To keep cases moving through your facility in order to give more patients access to potentially life-saving care, reemphasize proper endoscope handling techniques, tap into advances in reprocessing technologies and rely on a properly trained staff. Running an efficient center has never been more important.

The six basic steps of scope reprocessing — point-of-use pre-cleaning, careful transport, leak testing, manual cleaning and flushing, disinfection and sterilization, and careful storage — should apply, no matter how busy your facility gets. Now certainly isn't the time to cut corners or take shortcuts to respond to increased caseloads. Changing or modifying any of these essential steps to proper endoscope care will do more harm than good.

No one can predict what the next year will bring and how COVID-19 will impact colonoscopy screening volumes. The virus could be contained, and we'll face packed schedules as we deal with scheduling new cases and continuing to work through the backlog of postponed procedures due to the pandemic's first wave. Whatever happens, you shouldn't respond by ramping up too fast or committing to too high of a case volume. Keep doing what you've always done: relying on sound practices to make sure your patients are treated effectively and safely. As long as you don't stray from that focus, you'll be able to handle an influx of patients, even as the pandemic surges on. OSM