ObjectiveTo understand the history and current situation of digestive endoscope cleaning and disinfection in domestic medical institutions. MethodsQuestionnaire survey was used to investigate and analyze the history and current situation of digestive endoscope cleaning and disinfection in medical institutions in some provinces and cities in China. ResultsA total of 278 medical institutions in 11 provinces and cities of China participated in the investigation, 78, 175, and 278 institutions filled out complete information in 1986, 2005, and 2015 respectively. The personnels participated in cleaning consisted of doctors, nurses and workers, the combination of nurses and workers increased from 2.56% in 1986 to 23.74% in 2015. In 1986, 100% of medical institutions used storage water for digestive endoscope cleaning; in 2005 and 2015, all used running water for cleaning, besides, 30.29% of medical institutions used filtered water or purified water for cleaning, in 2015, 50.72% of medical institutions used filtered water, 17.63% used purified water for cleaning. In 1986, no cleaning enzyme were used, in 2015, 98.92% of medical institutions used enzyme for cleaning; in 1986, irrigation of digestive endoscopy channel was performed with simple rinsing（94.87%）, in 2015, enhanced irrigation (34.53%) and automatic irrigation (53.24%) were the main rinsing modes. In 2005 and before, >90% of digestive endoscope cleaning and disinfection were not recorded or manually recorded, in 2015, 36.33% of institutions used information traceability system. ConclusionThe staffing of digestive endoscope cleaning in domestic medical institutions, quality of cleaning water, selection of high efficiency disinfectant, monitoring and recording of digestive endoscope cleaning and disinfection in domestic medical institutions were greatly improved compared with 1986 and 2005, cleaning and disinfection gradually standardized, disinfection and sterilization methods of digestive endoscope tend to be diversified.