In an NPR Your Health report heard on Morning Edition Tuesday, Liz Szabo discussed medical device prices and their contribution to escalating healthcare costs. The story does note a solution that can help lower costs – reprocessing those medical devices:
While screws can be used only once, there’s no reason that other surgical equipment, such as saw blades, should be disposable, Rickert said. Hospitals routinely sterilize tools such as scalpels and scissors, then use them again.
AMDR members seek to maximize reprocessing for U.S. hospitals and promote a healthier, more transparent medical device paradigm that helps hospitals and healthcare providers better control device utilization. If hospitals can optimize the value of medical technology they already own, they can control these prices. Read the full NPR story here.