Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust is the latest site to install trophon2 devices from Nanosonics, enabling it to perform high level disinfection (HLD) of ultrasound probes.
Professional lead for ultrasound and deputy professional lead for imaging Hayley Whitehouse said: “Infection control is vital to us and our new trophon2 machines are the gold standard of ultrasound probe disinfection.”
The new units will be predominantly used on the early pregnancy and gynaecology assessment unit, ward 23 and across the women’s, children’s and clinical support services at the trust.
Since the first trophon device launched in the UK in 2013, there have been significant updates to the published guidance on the reprocessing of ultrasound probes in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
All guidelines now agree that HLD and automation should be used when reprocessing semi-critical ultrasound probes. In England, The Society of Radiographers and British Medical Ultrasound Society have said that automation is the preferred best practice for ultrasound probe decontamination.
Nanosonics points out that human error can occur when manual processing is carried out and guidelines state that this leads to human error at several touch points along the process, including error in the disinfection procedure, lack of efficiency or errors in record keeping.
In addition, manual processing and record keeping can be time consuming and complex which may have a knock-on effect on patient workflow efficiencies.
Automation provides greater reliability and reproducibility of the disinfection process for every cycle, which in turn provides improved safety for every patient. It ensures that the disinfection process achieves expected microbiological outcomes consistently while providing reliable data and documentation. Automation also allows digitised traceability capabilities, essential to protect institutions and patients with documented evidence of effective HLD.
Picture: Sonographer Sophie Page with one of Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust’s trophon2 devices.
Published on page 10 of the February 2022 issue of RAD Magazine.