I CAN SEE CLEARLY – ISSUE NO. 276

My youngest son, Peter, is now off to school for his senior year at Loyola New Orleans. He had many tasks to finish before leaving. One of them was getting new contact lenses. As we were waiting at the optometry office, we found out that his prescription was older than a year and he would be required to get a new exam in order to get contact lenses. Had Peter just wanted glasses, the prescription he had would have been good for 2 years. It was important that he had both contact lenses and glasses. We got the exam and found out they had not changed so we were able to get a supply of the same prescription contact lenses. The contact lenses along with his present glasses will now allow him to "focus" and see clearly his senior year of college. He was now ready, he had all the correct eye wear he needed to start school. I started thinking back to when I first started in CPD. We had small, hand-held magnifying glasses and maybe one tabletop magnifier for everybody to share for visual inspection of medical devices. Now departments have many options to visually check medical devices. One of the reasons is because IFUs are constantly changing and telling CPD professionals what tools are needed to visually inspect their medical devices. Just as my son needed to have contact lenses and glasses in his arsenal of eyewear to see clearly, departments need to have options when it comes to visual inspection. Instead of contact lenses and eyeglasses, departments have hand-held and table-top magnifiers, USB cameras and flexible inspection scopes for lumens, shavers and other medical devices. They are all needed to help staff properly inspect a medical device regardless of size or shape. It's not one size fits all; departments need an array of products. Like the CPD, my son needed not just contact lens, but also glasses to always see clearly depending on the situation. Does your department have all the right visual tools to do there job properly? I hope so. If not, do an audit of your visual inspection tools so you can be prepared for anything that comes into your department.