Medical instrument cleaning system and method

A method of monitoring a status of a medical instrument, the method comprising:

• receiving, using an input peripheral associated with a computer terminal, a code associated with the medical instrument to be subjected to a cleaning operation after a previous use of the medical instrument;
• initiating a timer for monitoring a duration of the cleaning operation;
• in response to completion of the cleaning operation determined based on the timer, updating a status of the medical instrument in an electronic record associated with the medial instrument stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium to indicate that the medical instrument has been cleaned;
• and
• issuing an indication that the cleaning operation being performed on the medical instrument is complete.

A method of monitoring a status of an endoscopic medical instrument comprising a housing that is to be at least partially inserted into a patient, the method comprising:

• receiving, using a barcode scanner, a code associated with the endoscopic medical instrument to be subjected to a cleaning operation after a previous use of the endoscopic medical instrument with another patient;
• initiating a query of an electronic record associated with the endoscopic medical instrument and stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium to determine whether the endoscopic medical instrument was cleaned after a most-recent use of the endoscopic medical instrument with the another patient;
• receiving a selection of a first cleaning station, from among a plurality of available cleaning stations, to be used for performing the cleaning operation of the endoscopic medical instrument;
• in response to said receiving the selection of the first cleaning station, initiating a timer for timing a duration of the cleaning operation;
• in response to completion of the cleaning operation determined based on the timer, updating a status of the endoscopic medical instrument in the electronic record to indicate that the endoscopic medical instrument has been cleaned since the most-recent use with the another patient;
• and
• issuing an indication that the cleaning operation being performed on the endoscopic medical instrument is complete.

A system for cleaning a medical instrument between uses with different patients, the system comprising:

• a cleaning station storing a cleaning solution in which a housing provided to the medical instrument is to be at least partially submerged during a cleaning operation;
• and
• a computer system for monitoring a status of the cleaning operation, the computer system comprising:
• a computer-readable-code reader that is operable to read a computer-readable code to distinguish the medical instrument from another medical instrument;
• a display device for displaying an interface comprising a virtual cleaning station corresponding to the cleaning station;
• a non-transitory computer-readable medium for storing an electronic record associated with the medical instrument;
• and
• a processor for executing computer-executable instructions to perform a method comprising:
• receiving, using the computer-readable-code reader, the computer-readable code associated with the medical instrument to be subjected to the cleaning operation;
• initiating a query of the electronic record to determine whether the endoscopic medical instrument was cleaned after a most-recent use of the endoscopic medical instrument;
• initiating a timer for timing a duration of the cleaning operation;
• in response to completion of the cleaning operation determined based on the timer, updating a status of the medical instrument in the electronic record to indicate that the medical instrument has been cleaned since the most-recent use;
• and
• issuing an indication that the cleaning operation being performed on the medical instrument is complete.