For those who use Pentax Scopes

[JEEMA]

How do you check/prepare the scope prior to use (already hooked in the machine)?

We had a colleague who claimed they use Pentax scopes where he previously worked and always forgets to put on the light/ do "whitening" in our Olympus scopes. We sometimes start the procedure without a light, that i have to switch on the light (as some of our docs dont double check the scope prior to use), and the doc just proceeds... with an imbalance view.

He claims. pentax scopes automatically does whitening by itself?

Just want to verify if he is telling the truth or not:) He also doesnt clean the scopes channels properly. Just found it one time coz i placed the brushes in the ultrasonic machine and he cleaned the scope after me. The next time it was my turn to clean the scope, the brush is still in the machine, same position and when we asked him where is the brush... he said it was there...though it was in the machine. I let the senior staff who speaks his language deal with him. He ended cleaning the scope again and stayed late.

I'm glad i was out of the department... but i pity the patients who might get nosocomial infection due to improper practice/incompetent staff.

[MQ Edna]

Pentax does have some scopes that do not use a white balance. The 3300 does not. Some only need to be white balanced once for a particular machine and then on a PRN basis. The machine will tell you to do it. But if you are more than 1 light source, you do need to do it more often because you balanced the scope for a particular light source. I believe other scopes may need it more often. As for the cleaning brush, usually we only have it in the dirty sink or place into cidex between uses. We clean our scopes with the steris machine. It sounds like this guy needs a refresher course in scope cleaning and maybe someone following him for a day or so. Either he doesn't know or is just lazy.

Either way I wouldn't want him to be cleaning the scope that is going to be used on me.:angryfire

[suzanne62]

Thats correct, we use pentax and they don't have to be white balanced like the olympus. You do it once and then thats it unless you have a problem with the colour or you use another light source. Also if you get a loan scope you need to white balance before use.:rotfl:

[elliej]

Well we use Pentax scopes and the rep told us we need to white balance each scope 1 time before we use it. And as far as the cleaning brush, we use it in the dirty sink to clean the scopes, then soak it in enzymatic between cleanings. I think your co-worker needs a refresher course.

Ellie