soaking pick up tubes in a chlorox

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please,do anyone inyour institution used to practice the soaking of pick up tubes into the chlorox as a form of disinfection?i have been in the service since 2001 and i got upset seing this kind of practice,as i asked it was the nurse in charge who instructed to do so.As i am thinking of it,if it will not be well wash as you can never use a brush inside it,then th residue will surely go to the pt. blood stream.Need further informations on your knowledge.Thank you so much.cynthia

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Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

Don't understand term "pick up tubes".... are you talking about plastic holders for blood collection tubes??

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I apologized for the incomplete informations i have given.We are using Gambro machines and the pick up tubes i was refering was the one with the machine to

be connected to the acid concentrate...my sincere appreciation to you.

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Specializes in Hemodialysis, Home Health.

We didn't use Gambro, but our machines had what we called :wands:.. they connected to the machine also, and snapped off. At teh end of the day, yes, we would always snap them off and let them soak in bleachwater.. both the red (acid) and the blue (bicarb) wands. Then they would be rinsed with RO water.

It is important that they be done this way to prevent any crystals or residue from forming and clogging them up. As far as I know, this is protocol pretty much everywhere. They need to be disinfected just as the rest of the machine is disinfected regularly with bleach.. even internally once a week.

Hope that helps ! :)

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