FEV1 Testing Concerns

Hawkey29

New member
Is anyone else as concerned as I am about using a spirometry machine that has been used by other CFer's? I know that the mouth piece is changed out, but I was diagnosed with having MRSA in my lung and I can't help but think that I could have gotten it by doing the test....?

I personally hate going to the CF clinic just because I am always concerned about getting b-cepacia or giving someone Pseudomonas and now MRSA....

Am I crazy or does anyone else share this concern?
 
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stonefly07

New member
I don't know. I've never thought of that! That's a grwat question. One that I will ask at my next clinic appointment...
 

kenna2

Member
I haven't really thought about that either and I guess it depends on your CF center. Mine has 3 different PFT testing rooms that are closed off between patients for a certain amount of time to make sure the room is clean and fresh air has been circulated in. I know it's a requirement that the machines and all flat surfaces must be wiped down and sterilized between patients. There is always a lysol wipe waiting in the pipe that the mouthpiece is attached to when I go in the do mine.
 

Patti Rowland

New member
Is anyone else as concerned as I am about using a spirometry machine that has been used by other CFer's? I know that the mouth piece is changed out, but I was diagnosed with having MRSA in my lung and I can't help but think that I could have gotten it by doing the test....?

I personally hate going to the CF clinic just because I am always concerned about getting b-cepacia or giving someone Pseudomonas and now MRSA....

Am I crazy or does anyone else share this concern?

I have also worried about this. I was assured that there is a filter that blocks out 99.9% ......of course every time my daughter is using it I keep thinking about that
.01%. I fear the clinic for her but really feel the hospital is where you get the most bugs. Has anyone else asked? Just curious if they got the same answer we did.
 

Bigmonkey

New member
I have also worried about this. I was assured that there is a filter that blocks out 99.9% ......of course every time my daughter is using it I keep thinking about that
.01%. I fear the clinic for her but really feel the hospital is where you get the most bugs. Has anyone else asked? Just curious if they got the same answer we did.

I always worry about the specialist teams at the cf centers. Do they get cough swabbed regularly in case they are chronically carrying any of the worst bacteria? I read that 25% of medical staff are carrying nasty bacteria all the time and that the rest are carrying some occasionally. I have always felt getting all the people with cf to go to the same place is not the best for the patients but obviously it is the most cost effective way to see them. In England when there was an outbreak of m.Absessus at one of the hospitals they showed that none of the people with it had met and that it must have been passed via another route. Sorry if i am adding to your worries but as a parent i see danger everywhere from door handles to toys in the rooms and so on. When i ask about these things they never give a straight answer.
 

mom2two

New member
At a well-known post and pre-lung transplant rehab clinic a lot of the PT's just pass the same pulse ox on down the line of patients. Drives me batshit, and yes I have spoken up about it, as have others. The response? If you dont like it, go wash your hands afterwards.............
 

LittleLab4CF

Super Moderator
I attend the Adult CF Clinic at NJH (National Jewish Health). Several years ago I realized that my doctor disposed of his smock and his stethoscope! The smock was disposable, the stethoscope wasn't a disposable. On my next visit he asked if I wanted the stethoscope, which initiated a discussion about the new protocol for keeping hospital borne diseases from happening.

This is a dedicated department in large hospitals and specialist facilities like a respiratory disease center. NJH has a full time attendant, (this is dated information) that is on the watch for compliance. I became aware of this when I was having a baseline measure of my respiration, the one where you sit in a sealed booth and hook up to a mouthpiece and clip. A half dozen technicians and doctors were monitoring the test. When I was finished, they were dismantling the hoses including my disposable mouthpiece and head straps on to the permanent plumbing and sensors. They even wiped down the walls in the booth. I've done stuff like this in the past and what they were doing was to assume nothing when a product is sold, including the issues of disease transmission.

What I am getting at is there is, or there had better be a dedicated department or person in charge of preventing hospital borne diseases. You are right to be concerned and I would be asking for a patient advocate or even the person who is responsible for managing it. I had an endoscopic ultrasound guided steroid injection into my celiac plexus done less a day from an announcement in the news about contaminated endoscopes, the special type used on me. This is at the CU Medical Center and 2016, not 1916.

Hospital borne diseases are a dirty door knob away. Here's where clean and technology fail. Hospital doorknobs and push plates are historically a high copper brass, some are just copper. It was patented in Europe in the 1800's. Copper serves several purposes but the two claims in the patent were the aseptic quality of copper and it cries to be cleaned up. Dirty hands transfer bacteria and sweat which the copper reacts with badly, the bacteria tend to die compared to wood or stainless steel, and the copper quickly discolors, betraying a door knob in need of cleaning. Before antibiotics, this was valuable, and it still is. The practice has been rendered useless by painting the knobs with a clear varnish. A good, infection reducing method lost to ignorance.

Ask them to reassure you that you can't be getting the backwash of the last patient hooked on the machine. I'm guessing that the silly shaped mouthpiece, the ones that look like miniature lamp bases, back to back, have a backflow preventer that works close enough to perfect that it's not significant. This is essentially the same way it's done at all respiratory disease centers. Everybody does it and assuming you are getting the big disposable mouthpiece, you're not in danger. You have to understand that preventing Hospitaliseases is as old as the discovery of disease transmission. It's a huge concern in medical facilities, keeping the place and equipment clean and the workforce complying with appropriate sterile technique is mission critical. I don't get upset over a pulse ox being re-used, if it was an isolation environment, you would have your own. You do make a point, the tech should hand you a sterile wipe. I guarantee that someone has been infected through the repeated use with patients. This illustrates the enormous opportunities for infection and how easily it becomes overwhelming.

My old primary doctor once said that as a patient, you have to defend yourself against the medical system.

LL
 
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Ratatosk

Administrator
Staff member
That was always my concern at our old CF clinic. They would have CF clinic days where all the patients were seen on the same day -- community waiting room, toys, patients heading down to the hospital clinic Xray dept, Lab then the PFT lab, which was a booth.

We never went because we were concerned with cross contamination. PFT lab was for everyone including elderly COPD and emphysema patients and we just didn't trust that it was kept clean/sanitized. New clinic, everyone wears gowns, gloves and masks. DS wears a mask. We still try to minimize touching elevator buttons, door handles, railings... and wash hands/use hand sanitizer frequently.
 

bobanny

New member
I've recently grown Cepacia. My dr's appointments are now the last one of the day in clinic bc it allows them to clean the machines and not having anyone else use them. Interesting thought though. Who knows, I could have picked up cepacia through that! Ya just never know.
 

LittleLab4CF

Super Moderator
Earlier this week I went to the CF Clinic and had my eye on sterile technique and the spirometry mouthpiece in particular. I brought the mouthpiece home and it is a simple filter. The reason for the large diameter of the mouthpiece is because the filter resists airflow and only a certain amount of resistance is allowed. Judging from what I understand about filters, a home HEPA filter will remove 100% of bacteria and viruses. This filter is much better.

What did concern me was the spirometry mouthpiece handle. I didn't notice it being wiped before or after the technician put it away.

Be courteous and direct about your concerns,

LL
 
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