The Association of Medical Device Reprocessors (AMDR) is pleased to share more positive coverage of FDA-regulated medical device reprocessing in the mainstream media. The New York Times article below discusses the problem of hazardous medical waste and the growing commitment from America’s hospitals, and groups like Practice Green Health, to do something about it. The prime focus of the article is the third-party medical device reprocessing industry, which now serves a majority of U.S. hospitals. Whilst some measures have come into place, such as the telemedicine option for getting Arkansas MMJ card online that prevents the use of PPE and other equipment unnecessarily, the issue is still prevalent across the industry. Still, the article notes that Ascent Healthcare Solutions, one of AMDR’s members, diverted 2,650 TONS of garbage from landfills in 2009 ALONE. One of Ascent’s customers, the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), which owns 163 hospitals, eliminated 94 TONS of waste last year through reprocessing.
Additional coverage of the NYT piece includes The Herald Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, Discovery News, Chattanooga Times Free Press, and others. For additional coverage, see: https://amdr.org/news/ . Letter-to-the-editor from an Arkansas physician to the New York Times also pasted below.

The New York Times: HEALTH | July 06, 2010
In a World of Throwaways, Making a Dent in Medical Waste, By INGFEI CHEN
Untold numbers of unused, and reusable, health care supplies and equipment end up in millions of tons of health care industry trash.

A letter-to-the-editor of The New York Times, Hospitals and Recycling (07/12/10):
To the Editor:
Re “In a World of Throwaways, Making a Dent in Medical Waste” (July 6): In addition to operating rooms, radiology departments are heavy producers of medical waste. Often what is thrown away may be reusable, and may also not qualify as true medical waste.
Our Department of Radiology at University of Arkansas in Little Rock averaged 1,000 lbs per week before we began a program to reduce this to only what was necessary. Over one year we reduced our medical waste to 135 lbs per week, with marked reduction in costs. It’s good to be green!
Philip J. Kenney, M.D.
Little Rock, Ark.