AERs (Automated Endoscope Reprocessors)

 Wondering where Custom Ultrasonics went to? You're not alone and it hasn't gone away. Wassenburg Medical Acquired Custom Ultrasonics on December 31st 2021. All of Custom Ultrasonics activities and assets were assumed by Wassenburg Medical including the staff members.Custom Ultrasonics seemed to be the perfect fit for Wassenburg as both have mission statements that were in alignment. Both focus on manufacturing and distributing high quality products having to do with infection control including endoscopic devices, instrumentation and other related equipment, components and supplies.B...

Most medical offices offering endoscopic services are so busy with patients and endoscopy procedures that the time between the pre-cleaning and manual cleaning is not even given a second thought as there is none. A stacked patient schedule doesn't allow for down time, but what happens if there's an anomaly. Some rare situation that arises where there's a longer delay than there ever should be and your system and protocols are tested. Are you ready for that?  In these rare situations, if there's no protocol in place you may be at risk of a failure of your AER being able to perform its job ...

You might be asking yourself does Med Service Repair… Sell Medivators products? Offer replacement AER Filters for Medivators AERs? Service Medivators AERs? Offer support for Medivators products? Sell Medivators AERs? Here's this writers thoughts / opinions on each question. Does Med Service Repair Sell Medivators Products? Well the "not so short" answer is MedService Repair has spent the last 25 years + assisting their clients; surgery centers, hospitals, clinics and medical practices, with making the best choices with regards to supplies and maintenance decisions for ...

Custom Ultrasonics carries a wide array of product solutions that are primarily focused on the cleaning and storage of endoscopic and other related instruments. They've been serving healthcare professionals and the Infection Control community since 1979 and through extensive R&D have developed and manufactured medical equipment that has met high-level disinfectant requirements to ensure patients safety and the efficiency of medical offices worldwide. If you had to categorize their products below is the best categorization: Washing & Disinfection of EndoscopesSystem 83 Plus 9System 83 P...

Why Choose the CER OPTIMA™? The CER-1 and CER-2 OPTIMA™ are well known for their compact footprint and their fast and convenient processing. Made by one of the industry leaders, Medivators® / CANTEL®, this unit with its multiple configurations has become an extremely popular solution for medical practices where space is a challenge but quality is of the upmost importance and cannot be sacrificed. The CER-1 Optima™ is capable of reprocessing 1 endoscope at a time. The CER-2 Optima™ is capable of reprocessing up to 2 endoscopes at a time. Both models are considered to be semi-portable syste...

We carry, repair and service the leading manufacturer's medical devices, equipment, products and consumables. So we thought it would make sense to spend a little time talking about one of the leaders in the market, Cantel Medical Corp. Cantel Medical Corporation is clearly one of the industry leading manufacturers of medical equipment. Cantel is an American company who is based in Little Falls, NJ and focuses in the "Medical Devices" industry. It was founded in 1963 and primarily focuses on infection prevention and compliance, water purification and filtration. Cantel Origins Cantel originated...

If you're considering the purchase of an AER (automatic Endoscopic Reprocessor) you're not alone. AERs have become the standard for so many practices across the globe. There's a lot to consider when purchasing of course, but there's just as much to consider about where and how it will be installed as well. So let's take a cursory look at the following installation considerations. Electrical, Room Ventilation and Air Supply Electrical We've talked about the electrical in other articles here on the MedServiceRepair.com web site. But your system typically must be able to supply 1000 watts at 100 ...

Following established guidelines for cleaning and disinfection of AERs (automated endoscopic reprocessors) is mandatory for the safety of your patients and internal staff. But who makes the guidelines and where do you find them to follow? It's a great question and an absolute requirement to have the right resources on hand. The great news is there's quite a few different respected entities that are contributing to these recommendations. And while the list below is not exhaustive it should give you a great place to start. Reviewing each of these resources should help you understand the best fit...

So here's a topic that may not be on the forefront of someone's mind looking into the purchase of an automatic endoscopic reprocessor; Energy Efficiency. We've already covered "Cycle time" in our prior article "Choosing an AER | Part 2: Cost Per Cycle". But cycle time also relates to and affects energy efficiency so it makes sense that we'd go into the energy perspective of cycle time here. All things being equal, any logical argument about energy consumption would include "the longer a unit takes to sterilize scopes the more it would typically cost to operate". But there's more to this equati...

In July 2015 the CDC (Centers for Disease Controls) asked HICPAC (Healthcare infection Control Practices Advisory Committee) for their recommendations on how to improve the facility-level training for those using reprocessing endoscopes. A large work group of 14 primary entities was formed to collectively development recommendations for HICPAC to take into consideration. The HICPAC recommendations were finalized and made available in July 2016. The first sentence in the CDC's Introduction indicates "healthcare facilities should have a reliable, high-quality system for endoscope reprocessing wh...

 So let's dive into part three of our series on the top things to consider when you're shopping for an AER (Automated Endoscopic Reprocessor).In this article we'll go over some of the items related to Service Costs. Obviously keeping these critical instruments in top notch condition and calibrated to the OEM specifications is extremely important. Quite literally, the health of your patients is on the line. So finding out what the recommended service schedule looks like for the AER you are considering purchasing is a pretty important step. Along these same lines is to do a little rese...

So we promised to go over some of the items on our list of considerations when purchasing an AER (Automated Endoscopic Reprocessor) from our March 28th article "Choosing and AER". There's obviously so many things to consider besides just the type of AER and budget that it may seem daunting. But here's one of the basic considerations that may be helpful to consider when you're in the market for an AER. Let's go into some of the details today on the "Overall Cost Per Cycle". Overall Cost Per Cycle There's a number of variables to consider when you're looking at the overall cost per cycle. And th...

While it may seem like common sense, you really need to consider what your budget is prior to even starting the hunt for an Automated Endoscopic Reprocessor. Prices are all over the board as are sizes, options and features for endoscopic scope sterilization machines (AERs). As with all technology the price per feature and the feature's capability typically falls over time but the amount of features and their capabilities continue to increase while the size of units get smaller and more compact increases the machines price. That said, research you've done last year is sometimes meaningless for ...

We've already covered the impact that the aging population has had with regards to the endoscopy market size in a previous article. But there's other factors that are driving this adoption by the medical industry and the general public fueling this growth as well. One of these additional factors fueling this growth is a steady increase in gastrointestinal, gynecological, urological and respiratory conditions. Diagnosing and treating these conditions requires endoscopic procedures. Due to this, the healthcare industry has adopted the use of these incredible machines as the recommended standard ...

It's interesting that cost is sometimes a mental barrier rather than physical. It definitely can be the first barrier for new equipment acquisitions, especially AERs (Automated Endocope Reprocessor) as the costs can soar is some cases. It's a barrier reached often before there is really any financial research done to see if an AER equipment expenditure can be justified from other financial perspectives. This position makes perfect sense if your practice has very little revenue, but for most medical offices that offer Endoscopic treatments the purchase of an AER may increase your revenue and de...

So what is an AER? It's a fair question as it's a mouthful to say. The short answer is an AER (Automated Endoscope Reprocessor) is used to reprocess endoscopes. But that's just turning words around and not really a good explanation. So let's first go over what "endoscopy" is so we get some context and a better understanding of the machines we're talking about. Endoscopy is a non-surgical procedure that allows doctors to examine and view the digestive system on a color monitor. The endoscope used for this procedure is a flexible tube that utilizes a small light and camera allowing doctors to vi...

So let's do a refresher on some of the recommended steps and precautions that must be followed to properly maintain and utilize an AER (Automated Endoscopic Reprocessing) machine. It may seem like a waste of time but there's some really great standards that have been set by multiple entities that can reduce your overall risk for patients of infections when operating these amazing machines. We'll start with a list of organizations who have created and established the professional guidelines for cleaning and disinfection of endoscopes. It's an industry best practice to develop your internal offi...

On April 18, 2018 there was big news for Cantel Medical as the FDA issued 510(k) clearance for them to begin marketing their Advantage Plus Pass-Thru automated endoscope reprocessor (AER). According to their press release this would be the first pass-through reprocessor marketed in the United States. The Cantel design of the Advantage Plus Pass-Thru AER enables one-way workflow. This dramatically reduces the possibility of human error. It's proven to high-level disinfect commonly used endoscopes and duoscopes. The design includes hard-wall separation. This allows for a completely separate...

So if you're one of the busier endoscopy facilities there's a lot of things to think about when selecting an AER. And while no one will be better than you at understanding your needs for your office and specific patient needs here's some things to consider if you're in the market for one. The quality of the machine and its capabilities are critically important and a couple of the top factors on the list. But by buying one of the leading manufacturers automatic endoscope reprocessor machines you're all but assuring yourself that you've handled those two factors. Another factor which is critical...