Flexible bronchoscope damage and repair costs in a bronchoscopy teaching unit

A significant part of the budget of our bronchoscopy unit represents repair costs for damaged bronchoscopes.

The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency, type and cause of damage to the bronchoscope as well as the repair costs.

Frequency, type and cause of bronchoscope damage and repair costs of 13 new bronchoscopes that were used between August 1, 2001, and December 31, 2006, were retrospectively studied.

We recorded 47 instances of bronchoscope damage during the study, which is 1 instance of damage/141.6 procedures. Six instances of damage (12.7%) were potentially preventable. The most frequent wear and tear damage was to the rubber sheath on the distal bending portion of flexible bronchoscopes, and the most frequently preventable damage was that of the suction channel of the bronchoscope. The repair costs totaled 34,950.00 EUR or 5.25 EUR/procedure. 17,781.00 EUR (50.9%) can be attributed to preventable damage. The use of bronchoscopes for educational purposes was not associated with a higher rate of bronchoscope damage at our institution.

Only a small number of occurrences of bronchoscope damage in our unit are potentially preventable, but they still represent an important expense. The relatively low occurrence of preventable damage is a result of the successful bronchoscopy training program.