From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov Transcript for: VA's Reusable Medical Equipment Description: The Veterans Health Administration, like most health care systems, reuses some medical equipment. But if not prepared properly, this equipment could endanger other patients. And the VHA has more than 9 million patients. Check out this podcast to hear how the VHA is doing. Related GAO Work: GAO-18-474: VA Health Care: Improved Oversight Needed for Reusable Medical Equipment Released: September 2018 [ Background Music ] [ Sharon Silas: ] Bottom line is, is that the VA has a responsibility to protect veterans within the VA Healthcare System. [ Matt Oldham: ] Welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report, your source for news and information from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. I'm Matt Oldham. The Veterans Health Administration is part of the VA. They serve 9 million veterans each year at more than 1,200 healthcare facilities across the country. And during some of these millions of visits, VHA Healthcare Professionals reuse medical equipment. It's a normal enough practice. I mean, why throw away perfectly good, and oftentimes expensive, equipment? But it's necessary to ensure patient safety through proper cleaning, sterilizing, and storage of this reusable equipment. I'm with Sharon Silas. She's a director on our Health Care Team, and we're talking about a GAO report which reviewed VHA's policies for sterilizing this equipment. Thank you for taking the time to speak with me, Sharon. [ Sharon Silas: ] Hi. Thanks, Matt. [ Matt Oldham: ] First off, what are the dangers of reusing medical equipment that has not been properly sterilized? [ Sharon Silas: ] Reusable medical equipment needs to be sterilized every -- after each use, and if it's not properly sterilized then that can result in a risk to patients being exposed to infections or serious illnesses. [ Matt Oldham: ] So, could you give me some examples of the equipment we're talking about here? [ Sharon Silas: ] The types of medical instruments that we're talking about range from the fairly simple or straightforward, such as surgical scalpels. But also can be quite complex, such as endoscopes or camera-bearing endoscopes which are commonly used in colonoscopies. [ Matt Oldham: ] Sharon, has the VHA dealt with this scenario in the past? [ Sharon Silas: ] Yes, they have. In fact, in 2009, the VA notified nearly 10,000 veterans that they had potentially been exposed to Hepatitis B, C, and HIV due to improper reprocessing of endoscopes. [ Matt Oldham: ] So what should a large medical system be doing to ensure their usable equipment is safe? [ Sharon Silas: ] It's going to be really important for the VA Healthcare System, in particular, to have a robust sterile processing program to ensure that reusable medical equipment have been properly sterilized. So that really means that they need to have strong and clear policies and requirements in place, and that those policies and requirements are informed by standards set by professional associations. [ Matt Oldham: ] So is the VHA doing those things? [ Sharon Silas: ] What we learned was that the Veterans Health Administration doesn't have complete information on required annual inspections of their sterile processing programs at VA Medical Centers. So specifically what we found was of 144 inspections that were supposed to be conducted in 2017, the Veterans Health Administration did not have reports on 39 of the required inspections. And what we found during the course of a review was that in some cases these inspections hadn't been conducted at all. [ Background Music ] [ Matt Oldham: ] It sounds like using improperly sterilized reusable medical equipment could potentially expose unwitting patients to some serious medical risks. So what recommendations did your team have in this report to help the VHA avoid problems like this in the future? [ Sharon Silas: ] First, to ensure that all of these inspections are being conducted and reported as required. And that the results of these inspections were being consistently analyzed and shared across the VA Healthcare System so that staff could have lessons learned. We also made recommendations for the Veterans Health Administration to examine their sterile processing workforce needs and take any actions needed to ensure that they had enough qualified staff to do reprocessing of reusable medical equipment. [ Matt Oldham: ] Lastly, what do you believe is the bottom line of your report? [ Sharon Silas: ] Well, the bottom line is, is that the VA has a responsibility to protect veterans within the VA Healthcare System. And having a robust program for sterilizing reusable medical equipment and ensuring that the VA Medical Centers are conducting and reporting on those inspections of the program is critical to ensuring veterans have access to safe and timely healthcare. [ Matt Oldham: ] Sharon Silas is a director in our Health Care team and she was talking about a report looking at the VHA oversight of reprocessing reusable medical equipment. Thank you for your time, Sharon. [ Sharon Silas: ] Thanks, Matt. [ Background Music ] [ Matt Oldham: ] And thank you for listening to the Watchdog Report. To hear more podcasts, subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts. [ Background Music ] [ Matt Oldham: ] For more from the congressional watchdog, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, visit us at gao.gov.