Episode Transcript
Olympus Corporation of the Americas and its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, directors, officers, employees, agents, and representatives (collectively “Olympus”) do not represent to or warrant the accuracy, reliability or applicability of the content or information herein (“Content”).This podcast has been paid for by Olympus Corporation of the Americas. The views and experiences shared are those of Linda Dickey, a paid consultant of Olympus Corporation and its affiliates. Olympus makes no representations regarding the accuracy or applicability of the content and disclaims all liability arising from its use. Product performance may vary, and techniques, instruments, and clinical decisions are unique to each facility and practitioner. Always refer to the Instructions for Use and applicable labeling for guidance, risks, and cautions.
Hi everyone, this is Tom Salemi.
Welcome to the OlympusTalks podcast.
We’ve got an important topic today. We’ll be talking about infection prevention and I’m here with Jamie McGloin. Jamie is an IPC specialist at Olympus. Jamie, we had a great conversation today.
We did. Thank you so much for having me and Linda. It’s been an awesome topic to cover and one that’s very near and dear to my heart.
So just give us an overview of some of the issues that we’ll be hearing about today and some of the concerns and the priorities of IPC folks like yourselves.
Yeah, I mean, well, we really wanted this episode to focus on just the critical role that infection preventionists play in endoscopy and in particular medical device reprocessing. You know, we know this is a pain point for many folks, but not an insurmountable one. So really just highlighting the resources that folks have access to and also, you know, making sure that we’re advocating for all of our healthcare players and also for ourselves.
What I was really struck by was how you and Linda both, you see both sides of the fence. You’re sort of really straddling that line. You see with the manufacturer’s point of view, the end user point of view, and you put yourselves right in the middle to make sure both sides are heard. I think that’s really impressive.
Yeah, no, it’s been fascinating to come from a healthcare based IP to now an industry. And obviously Linda has many, many years of experience as well. So really having a, a broad overview of just the challenges that folks face, but also these opportunities that we have for better collaboration both amongst IPs and our healthcare providers at the point of patient care, but also too with manufacturers.
Fantastic. So let’s not take any more time. We’ll start our conversation with you. You’re Jamie McGloin, IPC specialist at Olympus, and we’ve talked also with Linda D. Dickey. She’s also an IPC. She’s an IPC consultant and the former president of APIC.
Welcome to OlympusTalks, the podcast that brings you to the forefront of medical technologies as we explore advancements and innovations in GI. This eight episode series features talks with healthcare professionals, patients and Olympus subject matter. Experts listen as they dive into various aspects of GI health focused on improving patient outcomes through best practices. Stay tuned for conversations designed to educate, inspire and inform.
Well Linda Dickey and Jamie McGloin, welcome to the podcast.
Thanks for having us both.
Yes, thanks so much, Tom.
So we’re tackling an important topic today in this episode. We’re talking about infection prevention. And it’s great to know that there’s folks like you out there who are working hard to make procedures as safe as possible. And I want to unpack how you’re doing that in this podcast. But first, I think people always love to know a little bit about our guests. So, Linda Dickey, you’re an IPC consultant. Tell us how you got into this business.
Well, I’ve been in infection prevention for about 30 years. That and quality and patient safety more broadly. Like many people that are in our field, I kind of stumbled into it. I didn’t have formal education, my background’s in nursing, my graduate studies are in public health. And I really found that I enjoyed more of a population based approach to helping people have healthier lives than taking care of an individual person.
That just appealed to me a bit more. So it’s, it’s also the epidemiology of it, the working with kind of figuring out what’s going on and figuring out solutions to complex problems is also a challenge that I’ve liked. So I, I got into it kind of haphazardly. Someone who was already in it said maybe you might like this.
Interesting.
Right. And because they knew that I was not happy in the field that I was working in and moved from the east coast of the US to the west coast of the US through colleagues that just kind of passed the word along. So always, you know, networking does work.
Yeah, sure does.
Yeah, yeah. And practiced in a university setting for over 20 years and now I’m just independently consulting.
That’s great. So I guess it worked out for you. I guess you’re going to stick with this one.
That’s great. And Jamie, you’re IPC specialist at Olympus. How did you find your way there?
Well, first I have to give Linda a shout out. She’s not giving herself enough credit because.
They never do.
She was also the president of our National Infection Preventionists Association. So, you know, big shout out to Linda, she’s a legend. But yes, how I, of course, how I found myself in this role. So I joined Olympus this past fall. My undergrad’s in public health and I’m actually back in school now for a master’s in patient safety and healthcare quality. But in between that undergrad and where I am now, I was actually working as an infection preventionist at a large academic medical center here in Boston.
So that’s really where I got my boots on the ground experience. And I graduated May 2020. So if anyone’s really good at math, that was during COVID So I had been interning with the department, with the infection control department at that hospital. And then I said, hey, like I really want to be an infection preventionist. You know, to Linda’s point, it is kind of a niche field. You usually have to kind of find your way to it.
And I was fortunate enough to have been interning and then was able to jump right in and during my time there, also fortunate that I was working with a large team. So we kind of got to sub specialize a little bit. And that’s how I found myself kind of in the trenches of medical device reprocessing. And then that leads me to Olympus. So that’s kind of how I found my way to industry as well.
That’s amazing. I can’t think of a profession out there with a better descriptor of a title, Infection prevention. I mean it’s in the name, like you know exactly what you do, but I don’t think anybody knows how they do it, like what your role is. So how does an I, how do IPs contribute to infection prevention in the endoscopy suite? What is the role?
IP in the endoscopy suite is definitely a unique role within the health facility. I think there’s definitely a spectrum even amongst infection preventionists of how much time they spend in the endoscopy suite. You know, some folks are like, no, I don’t want to touch that with a ten foot pole. There’s a lot going on, but I would say, at least in experience in the endoscopy suite, you know, a lot of what we end up focusing on as IPs is that medical device reprocessing.
So making sure those devices are cleaned, disinfected and or sterilized appropriately so that they’re ready for use on the next patient. But it also goes beyond that though. There’s environment of care rounds. So making sure your actual patient care environment is up to par. Things are being cleaned and disinfected appropriately. I was fortunate enough to have the experience of also sampling and culturing endoscopes as a unique experience. As an ip, it’s not something that a lot of facilities do, but yeah, there’s safe injection practices, all sorts of things. But I would say, at least in my experience, a lot of my IP focus was on that reprocessing piece.
Linda, you’ve been doing this important work for a while and I’m curious as to how it’s changed and what is the sort of the day to day, week to week involvement look like?
Well, Jamie sort of alluded to that it can look quite different depending on the types of services that a organization provides, the level of expertise within an infection prevention team. But just to kind of tag on to what Jamie had shared and giving a picture of what a day to day might look like, I would venture to say most places are doing some type of surveillance for infections related to these instruments and these procedures.
Ironically, we don’t have a standardized definition for infection related to these kinds of procedures, but most places would be doing some type of surveillance. Certainly it would fall squarely within our purview if we saw anything of concern or, or if the healthcare providers were alerted to anything of concern. So that would be something that we would respond to very quickly to coordinate, gather information, try to figure out if there is a real problem, what it might be, and help intervene.
Another thing is we work a lot around workflows within these spaces. So an example might be that you could have a lot of different areas using these instruments, but, but you might want to centralize where the reprocessing occurs so that it can be consistent and well controlled. So working through those workflows with areas that might be performing endoscopy, bronchoscopy, the different types of procedures, and yet looking at transport, pre cleaning, all the different steps, getting that to be consistent, having everybody sing off the same music page, working through those kind of workflows would be another example of what we would coordinate with day to day and week to week.
And looking back over the time you’ve been doing this, has the importance that this has been given, is it more so now than it was? I’m certainly hearing about it more. I think most lay people hear about it more than we used to. It wasn’t something that I think a lot of people thought about. Are we the general public, just becoming more aware of the importance of infection prevention, or is it really a wider awareness that’s across the industry as well.
COVID is a great example. It’s like infection prevention is almost like a Rodney Dangerfield of the healthcare spectrum. You know, you really don’t value. You know, it’s not that people don’t value it, but it’s not really a problem till it’s like, really a problem and then it’s a real problem. And it’s the same in these areas. You have these kinds of procedures. They provide great diagnostic and clinical benefit.
But if you have an outbreak or a cluster or a real problem, then it’s like infection prevention kind of rushes to the forefront. So typically, we’re sort of in the background making sure everything kind of goes smoothly. It’s sort of like your HVAC system. You don’t hear it, you don’t notice it, you just don’t sweat, you know, like, you feel comfortable. And infection prevention is a lot like that.
If everything’s going right, you don’t notice it. But when it goes wrong, you definitely notice it.
Once the AC or the Wifi goes down, forget about it.
Exactly.
All bets are off. Jamie, you mentioned you entered this career when everyone was concerned about some sort of infection control.
Yes.
It’s weird to laugh about it, but what. I guess, what’s your experience been over over the time since you’ve joined?
I mean, what an incredible time to start in infection control. I mean, I had about a year before becoming a real, like, infection preventionist when I was, like, interning to kind of see what things were like pre-COVID, but still to dive in in the midst of COVID-19. It was a steep learning curve for sure. And I’m so grateful for the mentors that I had at the hospital who really just knew how to put the heads down and make sure we’re keeping our patients and our staff safe.
But I think, and kind of to Linda’s point, you know, as we kind of went through those. Those eras of COVID and as it became less important to the general public, public, et cetera, there was a lot of cognitive dissonance between what we were experiencing in the hospital versus what was happening out in public. You know, you could go to work on a Monday and have to still be masking, but that Saturday, you were at a concert and really, you know, trying to navigate that confusion between what’s happening in the healthcare setting versus what’s happening in the public. And at the same time, too is, you know, there were pockets in, throughout the COVID pandemic where, you know, a lot of space was created to focus solely on COVID.
But then as it started to become less of a headline, all the other demands came back in full force. And perhaps, you know, there were practices that had to happen as part of just like our emergency response to COVID that might not, might weren’t necessarily up to par. And so you’re going back, you’re correcting some things. Maybe something that really needed a lot of focus just wasn’t getting it. So now you’re kind of going back, you’re trying to play catch up, but it’s just going 100 miles an hour. So the healthcare based IPs are literally always doing 100 things at once.
I believe it. Well, I think one thing that has certainly made infection prevention even more important is just the development of new devices and flexible endoscopes, of course, and the reprocessing involved. And I’m sure there are a lot of challenges and best practices that have to be followed. So maybe Jamie, you can take this one first. What role do IPs play in ensuring safe reprocessing?
Yes, no, definitely. IPs are a critical part of that care team. And I think sometimes we’re not always at the table as soon as we need to be. So obviously all of these advances in medical devices are wonderful. You know, they’re getting patients better outcomes, faster recoveries, et cetera. But sometimes, you know, we’re also seeing that because of that, some of these devices are more complex, might need additional technologies.
And what we really are seeing too is, and what there’s been a push for, I think, is that trying to be proactive about bringing in these new technologies and having those instructions for use previewed beforehand. And actually in the new, there’s a new SHEA guideline on sterilization and high level disinfection. And something I really loved in it was, was they have this ongoing emphasis that facilities need to make sure they have the appropriate expertise and resources to ensure that they can disinfect and sterilize effectively and safely.
And I think that that’s a key part of it too is, you know, obviously we have wonderful clinicians who want to be offering their patients the best of the care possible. But sometimes our facilities are not always up to speed on the technologies that we need to support the reprocessing of these devices. And so these conversations just need to happen earlier. And hey, we want to bring this equipment in.
Let’s read the Instructions for Use. Do we have what we need to safely reprocess this device? Because new technology is great, but if you can’t use it safely on the next person, what good is it?
Great. Very cool. So, Linda, I’m sure there’s a lot to consider. How do end users choose relevant guidelines and standards and resources?
Well, there are a lot of voices out there,. And so, you know, we look to the ones that we know and trust. To be honest, it’s our responsibility as infection preventionists to first start with knowing what, who our authority, having jurisdiction is for our healthcare setting. So you know, what the regulatory requirements are. And that would be local, state, federal, and then beyond that, we look to trusted sources like the CDC, like professional societies and associations.
We should be aware of those types of documents. As infection preventionists, certainly people practicing in these areas would be or should be aware of those documents as well. But it’s not uncommon for us to really dig into the details of these types of documents and talk to our peers, talk to other organizations across the country and people that we know and say, well, what, you know, how are you handling this? How are you interpreting this?
What are you guys using? Or how are you, you know, what’s your policy around this? So that’s certainly the bread and butter of how we figure out, you know, what guidelines and standards and practices that we follow.
It’s interesting too, because a lot of these guidelines and standards have the same skeleton, but the meat on the bones shows up in different forms. You know, so some of these are really robust and dense and have multiple annexes and others are a little bit more bare boned of like these are just the general best practices and facilities still might need to supplement a little bit in terms of exactly how they want to do something.
So it’s definitely not the easiest thing to navigate, but there are plenty of resources to use.
And we also, I think we might learn a lot if we, or when we look beyond our borders here in the US to what our colleagues are doing in other countries because our practices don’t always mirror one another exactly. So to see, you know, what another country or region might be doing, I think is very healthy to say, well, what have they found in their data? What took them to that? You know, what is their evidence for that practice?
What could we learn from that? Should we change? So there’s a healthy exchange, I think internationally that we benefit from.
You would think that there’d be standard that folks would just arrive at that would be universal. But it’s not, I guess it does vary from country to country, market to market.
Well, like I mentioned at the very beginning, I find it fascinating that we don’t have a standardized definition for endoscopic related infections.
Good point.
I mean, you would think that we would have something like that so that we could report infections and actually have comparative benchmarking to know when there’s a problem, but we don’t have that. We have it with other types of infections, but we don’t have that. So, yeah, I think there’s still ample ground to grow.
I couldn’t agree with Linda more, and I think that’s actually one of my challenges in this role at Olympus is, you know, trying to understand the global footprint of reprocessing and actually diving into those other guidelines. You know, reading Canada’s, reading the Internet, the ISO documents a lot of good stuff coming out of Australia. But to the point is there are differences. And it’s an interesting question to sit back and think about, well, how did we get here and how could things be so different?
And also to Linda’s point, echoing that, that lack of a standard surveillance definition is a huge detriment to our ability as IPs, because, you know, we have, we have CAUTI definitions, CLABSI definitions, SSI. These are all our standard definitions that we surveil for other infections for. And any IP is going to be familiar with these. And these are published by the National Healthcare Safety Network through the CDC.
And this is what really helps us understand how many infections are happening kind of objectively in our healthcare systems, at least in the US.
So I have a feeling your summer reading lists are a lot different than other people. I see you on a beach or by a pool with this catalog that you’re reading that others are walking by and scratching their head.
Usually. Christmas break, new definitions for the new calendar year.
Oh, is that when they come out? Okay, well, that’s not so bad. What else are you going to do in Boston during the winter? So you’ve got a great perspective. I think you see the entire field. What are some of the significant challenges that the end users face in reprocessing spaces?
There’s a myriad. I think one of the things that is unique, well, I shouldn’t say it’s unique to this area, but, you know, the healthcare provider at the patient’s bedside has one goal. Not that they can’t see the perspective of the people that are in there wearing the PPE doing the reprocessing, but everybody’s kind of like, got their piece of the pie to make that patient care happen. And they don’t always understand the pain points and the pressures.
And so I think that’s one in a lot of areas. You know, I think all of our jobs kind of have that. Not everybody lives in your shoes and understands your world. So they don’t always understand what it takes to produce something that looks so easy. Like, how hard could it be to clean this scope in 15 minutes and get it to me, because I have a patient and we have 30 scheduled today. But I do think there are providers out there who thoroughly understand how complex and difficult it is and are supportive of technicians cleaning these scopes. And then I think there’s those that probably underestimate how difficult it is and don’t realize the complexities and the challenges.
Linda absolutely nailed it. I mean, reprocessing starts at the point of use, so that pre cleaning needs to be happening as soon as that procedure is over. And that means that device is still in the hands of that clinician. And sometimes making sure everyone across the entire process is invested in the process from beginning to end can be really difficult. Because to the point, I think a lot of times there is this misconception that how could it be that hard?
But there’s a lot of steps involved and people are in PPE, they’re at the sinks, and, you know, they have to have very focused attention on these things. And I think other challenges, too, that a lot of folks face are space, time and staff is, you know, sometimes our techs are shoved into these tiny little spaces with not necessarily enough sink space to do what they need to do. And they have to, Linda’s point, 30 procedures in the day. So scopes are coming in that entire day, that and just waiting to get reprocessed. And then also too is, you know, sometimes, and my facility struggled with this too, is finding those staff who, you know, how do we get folks interested in careers in reprocessing, willing to be in PPE all day sitting at the decontam sinks, and, you know, how do we support them with continuing education and appropriate resources and make it a career that people are willing to stick in and build expertise in because it’s tough, it’s hard work.
It sounds like it for sure.
The visual that comes to mind for me is, and I’m going to show my age here, but, you know, there’s an I Love Lucy episode where they’re working on the candy conveyor line and, you know, first the candies are going by slowly and they’re able to do their job, but then they start going by really fast. And I think reprocessing is like that. Like, you have days where it’s not as crazy, but then there are days when everybody’s hair is on fire and it’s hard to be patient and supportive, especially when you’re working in a cramped space with basically in a spacesuit and you’re hot, and there’s hot, steamy water and there’s machinery and you’re cleaning something that is very difficult to clean and disinfect. And there’s a ton of steps.
I would think, with the pressures that our healthcare providers are under, both the hospitals and the institutions and the people, time is precious, space is precious. As you said, there’s probably, Linda, as you alluded to, there’s just this constant pressure to get the next thing done. Who takes the role of sort of advocating for better reprocessing guidance in educational resources? Who’s sort of stepping back and taking that big picture?
Is it APIC? Is it some of the other societies?
I don’t think there’s any one organization that is doing this alone. There are many voices at the table, and thankfully they are working together. And, you know, again, as Jamie mentioned, there are international societies that are sharing and talking, and I think that’s so healthy and helpful to learn from one another.
It is really a collaborative effort because even amongst one care team. So, you know, the IPs might be going to APIC for guidance. Your soil processing techs might be going to HSPA for guidance. Some of your nurses may be going to ARN or HSPA. So, you know, kind of figuring out a way to bring all those pieces together. But I think IPs really do play a pivotal role in that too, of finding the time to learn about the endoscope reprocessing cycle. And, you know, APIC actually just came out with issue brief on the science behind endoscope reprocessing. So it’s resources like that that I think can help lay a good foundation for IPs to be able to then go into these reprocessing spaces and say, hey, it looks like you might actually need more resources here. Or, you know, I heard about this new product.
You know, let’s see what we can do. Because even though they’re not, even though IPs aren’t at the sink every day, it’s still critical for us to understand how that scope moves through that space.
And are the end users and the providers generally grateful for the info and the feedback?
You know, I think you have to start with, you know, where they’re at, like for the physicians right at the bedside and, you know, some that own these practices and they’re trying to provide care, they’re looking at their quality of care, the volume of care, so to speak their language and say, you know, we want to be able to provide the volume that you need and you want, and you want to grow this area of practice and you want to obviously do it safely.
In order to do that. These are the elements that we need to consider. You know, these. And kind of backing up and creating that full picture does help create an environment where you can move more towards advocacy for what you need. You know, if it’s automated endoscope reprocessing machines, if it’s more staff, you know, whatever it might be.
Great point. Let’s talk a little bit about the role that manufacturers can play. What should IPs consider when assisting in the implementation of instructions for use or IFUs?
I mean, I can start with this, but I would say is make sure. The first place I always like to start was make sure you have your most recent version of the instructions for use available. If anyone has spent time down in reprocessing spaces, as much as IFU should be ready available at the sinks for our technicians to be using, we know that’s not always the case. Sometimes they’re in binders or tucked in random cabinets and it’s not uncommon to find old, outdated versions. So I think as an IP, a great role folks can play is being the one to help reach out and find that updated IFU, or, you know, if you have access to a customer portal, because you want to start with your basis of truth and then go from there.
So, yeah, and then once you have that, the IP can be sort of a wingman or a second pair of eyes to go in and say, where do we have gaps between what the instructions for use are telling us we need to be doing, or, you know, and what we’re, what we’re seeing, what we’re actually doing and to do a risk assessment to see, okay, now that we see what our gaps are, do we have any areas that are going to really present a big challenge we need to address immediately?
And then work your way through to kind of figure out how to address any gaps that you do see. You can talk to colleagues and find out how are you addressing this. You can call back to the manufacturer and say, I’m having a challenge with this, there’s a variety of ways to approach that.
Well, it sounds like IPs really have a role of sort of a liaison, of sort of a representative of both, kind of straddling both sides of the end user and the manufacturers. How can IPs collaborate with the manufacturers to ensure that new technologies that are coming out really meet the needs of the end users?
I mean, this is something I believed before joining Olympus and still believe now is just being vocal about the challenges that you’re facing. So finding those folks in the company, you know, for me it’s like you would, over time you would just learn some reps, you would have find some contacts and those would kind of be the folks you’d go to. And you can mention like, hey, this is what we’re, this is our pain point for us, etc.
And now in my new role, purposely brought in to bring those insights inside of saying, well, hey, this was my experience as an IP in a hospital setting. These are the challenges that I hear folks talking about on the APIC community board. So really still trying to keep an ear to the ground of what folks are talking about in the community and at least having someone vocalizing that, because I think if you just, if you stay quiet, then nothing ever is ever really going to change. And at least if you’re speaking up, you know, it still might take time, but it will eventually be heard and then can be incorporated in the future.
Yeah, absolutely. And you know, it’s valuable to hear the different perspectives within the field because the physician is going to have one set of challenges or frustrations or desires and the person actually cleaning the instrument is going to have a different set of desires and challenges. And I think the person even running the unit, the nurses, there’s a lot of individuals that are playing different roles and the infection preventionist sort of interfaces with all of those individuals.
I mean, we do look through the lens of trying to prevent infection, but that lens helps us see workflow challenges, staffing challenges, all sorts of needs. And we also hear about, you know, the goals of, wow, it would be great if we had an instrument that could do this or help us find this or get into this and just sharing those insights. I think with manufacturers to say, you know, what is on the cutting board and seeing if we can advocate for research or trials or things that will bring us to a new level.
An example of that are automated endoscope reprocessing machines. They didn’t exist years ago. When I first got into this, we were soaking all of these scopes in little pots of glutaraldehyde and the rooms had fumes that would burn your eyes and burn your lungs. And we’ve come so far just in my career and that was from industry listening and responding.
That’s quite a change. I don’t really have a good follow up for that. That’s quite an image to share. And yeah, we have certainly come a long way. So conversely, how do IPs work with the different healthcare facility stakeholders to get new products in and to ensure successful adoption of a new product?
I think a common theme you’re probably hearing from what Linda and I have been saying is the IP is this true, like collaborator, relationship builder, kind of middleman. And I think it really puts us in a great place to be able to understand our end users pain points and find products that not only do we believe in because from our infection prevention lens, we think this is a good product, but we also recognize it as an opportunity to solve a pain point for our end users. And I think to that point, playing that role as an advocate to say not only will this help solve this solution, but it will also make this process safer for our staff and our patients, is a huge and should not be underestimated card to be able to play in those negotiations over, you know, what products should we be bringing in, etc.
And in the value analysis process, most places have some sort of committee or collaborative group that will vet different products and equipment. And the person usually introducing, wanting to bring something in has a motivation for that. Sometimes it’s just because it’s the new widget on the block, but sometimes it’s solving a problem that they have. And so when that new device or solution or product comes forward, part of our role as IPs is to be able to, at least through our lens, through our lens, be able to say, I can see these advantages, I can also see these challenges that we need to discuss and see how we can get through those.
And that’s another advantage of how broad our practice is, is that we’re constantly looking at where something meets a need, but also where there might be bumps in the road that we need to anticipate in advance so that when we actually bring it in, people have already talked about it, you’ve already anticipated some of those challenges and how you might address those challenges so that when you actually need to get adoption and do a rollout.
It goes a lot more smoothly than having to address those things along the way.
Are there things that industry can do as manufacturers to kind of smooth things out a bit? Product standardization, is that beneficial to both IPs and to the end users? I imagine it would make things simpler if we’re all reading from the same sheet of music.
Yeah. I think if there’s anything we’ve learned in healthcare, standardization is our friend. And I mean, an example is the keyboard that sits in front of us all every day. Like the keys are in the same place. And we all know how to use it and expect how to use it, because it’s the same way every time you sit down in front of a keyboard. And if you picked up things and they were different every single time, it just makes your job so much more complicated.
So the more things can be standardized across a device or a practice, it makes the ability to comply and practice safely exponentially better. It is definitely our friend to standardize.
And, Linda, what are some other things that manufacturers should consider?
Well, one thing that might, or at least from my vantage point, might seem like it’s out of their wheelhouse, but I think would be really, really helpful, is input from manufacturers about the actual built environment, where these procedures are done and where these instruments are cared for and reprocessed. There is some input out there, but it’s so important. The built environment is like another member of the health care team.
The amount of space, the way the workflow moves, the lighting, the air, the water, the surfaces. There are so many things about the built environment that make caring for the patient and being able to reprocess well work. And I think manufacturers are in a unique position to be able to help inform the architectural community. You know, people building these spaces, it costs so much money to build these spaces.
And manufacturers have great information that could be shared to make these spaces the best they could be.
All right, Jamie, and final word to you. Where do you see standardization helping us going forward?
I mean, standardization is key because not only did I believe this also in the hospital, but even still today, hearing from other IPs as we go to APIC meetings, et cetera, I think with standardization, we can also think about making it easier to do the right thing. So, as I mentioned before, IPs are doing 100 things at once, and so are. So is every other healthcare provider, technician, etcetera, in a healthcare facility is doing so many things at once. So when we’re able to make things more second nature and alleviate some of those pain points, even if it’s just reaching for a different product that you would have to use. The more we can streamline and standardize things, the more likely we can really just lead people to do the right thing.
That’s fantastic. Well, I’m grateful for this view inside a world that I don’t think anyone really gives enough thought to as to the work that goes into making sure our devices are safe for the next use. So thanks for your work and for dedicating your careers to doing that. And thanks, of course, for joining us on the podcast.
You bet.
Thanks so much, Tom. And thank you, Linda, also for joining.
And you too, Jamie. Thanks for being at Olympus. It’s great to have IPs in there.
Oh yes, it’s fun to be on the inside now, too. So don’t worry, guys. I’m speaking up.
All right, well, that is a wrap. Thanks so much for joining us on this episode of the OlympusTalks podcast. Thanks, of course, to our corporate partner, Olympus for working with us and making this a great podcast series. If you’d like to find the other episodes of OlympusTalks, please visit olympusamerica.com/podcasts. Of course, we’d also love you to follow our DeviceTalks Podcast Network so you don’t miss a future episode of OlympusTalks. Also, connect with DeviceTalks on LinkedIn. Connect with myself, Tom Salemi. I’m Editorial Director and our Managing Editor, Kayleen Brown. So we’d love to be part of your future MedTech conversations and help you find additional episodes of OlympusTalks. Well, that’s it, folks. Thanks again for joining us on this episode of the OlympusTalks podcast.
