Happy holidays. And good riddance to 2020!
One silver lining: In the tragedies associated with COVID-19, never again will we take medical devices and supplies for granted and thus the value of regulated reprocessing of single-use devices (SUDs) is amplified due to hospitals’ urgent need to reduce costs. Hospitals that expand professional reprocessing programs can address the cost burden associated with the pandemic, better control their supply chain and invest savings to prepare for future threats. Thankfully the vaccines are rolling out, but it will take months or years for hospitals to financially recover and reprocessing provides an immediate cost reducing solution.
The end of 2020 saw a shift in focus to the impact of greenhouse gas emissions from hospitals. The amount of medical waste the healthcare system creates, and the unnecessary greenhouse gasses it emits every day, is literally making people and our planet sicker. This destructive trend erodes the medical profession’s duty to do no harm. The good news is that we now have the tools and expertise to turn the tide.
New evidence published in the Journal Health Affairs powerfully underscores that the reliance on single-use medical devices is a major cause of greenhouse gas emissions. According to the study authors: “In the US alone, pollution from the healthcare industry results in up to 614,000 disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) lost annually.” Reprocessing, the authors suggest, can help mitigate the shocking adverse impact of hospitals on human health.
In “Transforming the Medical Device Industry: Road Map To A Circular Economy,” the authors point to reprocessing and remanufacturing SUDs as a key component in moving away from a linear, “take-make-use-dispose” culture, to a more resilient, circular economy. Other articles highlight the adverse environmental impact associated with health care delivery and the need to take urgent action.
AMDR also points to reprocessing as a solution to better serve the environment in our comments to the European Commission on its Sustainable Products Initiative.
Below are a number of articles from the last quarter of 2020 zeroing in on the urgent need to adopt and fully optimize medical device reprocessing programs to find desperately needed cost savings, reduce medical waste and build a more resilient health care supply chain.
I look forward to working with you in the year ahead to achieve these aims.