The question of validation in the new guideline of the 2021 ANSI/AAMI ST91 for flexible and semirigid endoscopes has created some confusion within practice settings.

In a statement presented in Gastrointestinal Endoscopy in March 2022 and also repeated in a Priority Report in Gastroenterology & Endoscopy News in the Summer 2022 edition, the GI societies declined endorsement of the new guideline, listing lack of evidence to specific additions to the statement as cause for rejection.

As an instructor to endoscopy nurses and technicians, I have recently received calls and texts from colleagues and students that this recent rejection of the guideline is creating issues with the adherence to the standing multisociety guideline in practice. They are reporting that they are being directed to shortcut the accepted guideline to speed processing time. Several questions are coming that address the elimination of specific steps other than those mentioned in the recent publication that are being considered unnecessary and time consuming. In specific areas of practice, there is suddenly confusion as to what is appropriate and required for infection prevention.

We need to urge that the current SGNA Standard as well as the Multi-Society Guideline be followed as directed in all areas of endoscope reprocessing to ensure that infection control is maintained. As these issues within the current statement are being addressed, we must know that strict adherence is not a suggestion but a requirement to staff and patient health and safety.

Sincerely,

Leslie E. Stewart, MA, RN, CGRN-Retired

SGNA President, 2011-2012, Retired

Department of Endoscopy,

Jersey Shore University Medical Center,

Meridian Health, Neptune, New Jersey