Association of Medical Device Reprocessors

Insider Media Limited

March 21, 2012

The Swindon-based company has acquired MSI from Empire Investment Holdings for a cash consideration of $6.5 m (£4.1m).

MSI operates a hospital sterilisation facility in New York and is said to be the second largest provider of these outsourced services in the US. It recorded revenue of $4m (£2.5m) for the year to 31 December 2011.

Synergy Health said the acquisition of MSI is an early step in its plans to develop a hospital outsourcing base in the US. The company will work with MSI’s customer base to expand its knowledge with the view of developing a networking in 2013.

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Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Renea Goode, RN

Controversy still surrounds the reprocessing of single-use devices. Opponents of reprocessed SUDs claim reused instruments are unclean and unsafe. Champions of the practice cite reduced waste and purchasing costs as benefits too big to ignore.

So opinions vary. But the FDA and the U.S. Government Accountability Office have deemed reprocessed devices to be safe, and more surgery centers are turning to third-party reprocessors to help them reap the economic and environmental benefits of reusing surgical devices. Finding a vendor to provide ongoing education is key to getting your reprocessing program off the ground, and to getting your OR staff on board with SUD reprocessing…

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For more information about how your hospital can succeed with reprocessing, be sure to visit AMDR on the web, Twitter, and Facebook!

Becker’s Hospital Review

Authored by Lars Thording, Senior Director of Marketing and Public Affairs, Stryker Sustainability Solutions

March 6, 2012

Every healthcare facility faces the same challenge: to reduce costs without sacrificing the delivery of quality care. As a result of dwindling healthcare reimbursements, and increased awareness of environmental sustainability, more facilities are turning to reprocessed single-use devices as an effective resource management strategy. Reprocessing programs are used by more than half of U.S. hospitals and all seventeen of the U.S. News & World Report ”Honor Roll” hospitals. 

As an industry, we have changed the way hospitals look at SUDs. Practices have evolved for hospitals to safely participate in reprocessing and remanufacturing programs while making smarter purchasing decisions and reducing their environmental footprint. It’s easier to become a healthier hospital today than it was as recently as ten, even five years ago.

…Impacting the industry
Members of the Association of Medical Device Reprocessors help divert an estimated 9 million pounds of medical waste from landfills over the course of a year. Healthcare facilities are the second leading contributor of waste in the U.S., producing more than 4 billion pounds of waste annually. According to Practice Greenhealth, operating rooms are some of the most resource-intensive places in hospitals, generating between 20 and 30 percent of a facility’s waste. Much of that is disposed of as medical waste, which costs 10 to 15 times more to dispose than regular waste. Using reprocessed medical devices can help mitigate these numbers while also reducing costs.

Remanufactured devices are about half the cost of original manufactured single-use devices. It is estimated that the healthcare industry would save nearly $2 billion every year if just one or two percent of devices marked “single-use” by device manufacturers were able to be reprocessed through FDA-regulated third-party reprocessors. Smart purchasing decisions, including the use of reprocessed devices, allow hospitals to deploy more of their scarce resources towards improving patient care through quality initiatives, such as hiring more nurses or purchasing much-needed equipment. 

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For more information on how hospitals can benefit from a successful reprocessing program, please visit AMDR on the web, Twitter, and Facebook!

GlobeNewswire Press Release

Posted on February 1, 2012

Vascular Solutions, Inc. announced that it is marketing a reprocessing service for the ClosureFAST radiofrequency ablation catheter in the United States. The ClosureFAST catheter, which is manufactured and marketed by VNUS Medical Technologies, Inc. division of Covidien, is widely used for performing endovenous therapy for the treatment of varicose veins. Vascular Solutions’ reprocessing service is designed to help physicians reduce medical waste and lower their costs.

…”Reprocessing has proven to be a safe and effective way for hospitals and clinics to cut down on medical waste and reduce operating costs. As a result, the vast majority of U.S. hospitals are now contracting with third-party reprocessors for a wide variety of medical devices,” said Howard Root, Chief Executive Officer of Vascular Solutions. “Reprocessing has become one of the fastest-growing segments of the medical device industry, and we are very pleased to be entering this market in collaboration with NES for the ClosureFAST catheter, which we estimate to be generating in excess of $70 million in annual sales in the U.S.”

…Hospitals and clinics that subscribe to the service send their used ClosureFAST catheters directly to NES for reprocessing. Upon completion of reprocessing, customers receive those same catheters back, ready for a second use. NES’s validated reprocessing system for the ClosureFAST catheters involves multiple stages, including decontamination, cleaning, drying, packaging, labeling, sterilization, and biological quarantine testing. As part of the process, each catheter is subjected to function testing and undergoes multiple inspections to ensure that quality standards are met…

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For more information about third party reprocessing, be sure to follow AMDR on the Web, Twitter and Facebook!