7 minute read
Buyers Guide
AUTOMATED MEDICAL PRODUCTS CORP. Iron Intern
Address: P.O. Box 759 Woodbridge, NJ 07095 Phone: 732-602-7717 Email: sales@ironintern.com Website: www.ironintern.com Product Description: The Nathanson Hook Liver Retractors are designed to retract the liver during laparoscopic surgery and hold it out of the way. Automated Medical Products offers a full range of Nathanson Hook Liver Retractor sizes: Small, Medium, Large, Long Nose, Pediatric, and 3mm sizes. The Iron Intern® Articulated Arm is the retraction of choice for both open and laparoscopic procedures.
GETINGE
Torin Intelligent Technology
Address: 45 Barbour Pond Drive Wayne, NJ 07470 Phone: 1 888 627 8383 Email: customercare-US@getinge.com Website: www.getinge.com/torin Product Description:Getinge’s NEW Torin Intelligent Technology — With Torin, optimize OR scheduling with simplifi ed planning to increase utilization and runtime. Easy identifi cation of hospital resources, from staff to rooms to equipment, promotes effi cient OR operation and quick scheduling of planned and last-minute cases. Updated case information supports communication to patients and their caregivers. Torin helps to ensure that ORs run according to schedule and maintain optimization rates.
STRYKER
Address: 5900 Optical Court San Jose, CA 95138 Phone: 800 624 4422 Email: EndoCustomerSupport@stryker.com Website: https://1688aim4k.com/ Product Description: Introducing Stryker’s 1688 Advanced Imaging Modalities (AIM) 4K platform. A comprehensive imaging ecosystem designed from the ground up for seamless standardization, OR connectivity, and ease of use across multiple specialties.
BLACKMAGIC DESIGN
ATEM Mini Pro
Address: 2875 Bayview Drive Fremont, CA 94538 Phone: 408 954 0500 Email: info@ www.blackmagicdesign.com com Website: www.blackmagicdesign.comm Product Description: ATEM Mini Pro (US$595) is a lowPro (US$595) is a low cost, live production switcher designed for live streaming. Now, capture surgeries, broadcast medical school lectures, stream educational content to better connect with patients, and more. It includes four standards converted HDMI inputs, USB webcam out, direct live streaming via Ethernet, direct recording to USB fl ash disks, a multiview, video effects, and more.
Address: 5960 Heisley Road Mentor, OH 44060 Phone: 800.548.4873 Email: Melissa_Gonsalves2@steris.com Website: STERIS.com/biologicalindicators
Product Description:
Waiting is the worst. So STERIS did something about it. For steam and hydrogen peroxide sterilization, Celerity™ 20 HP and Celerity™ 20 STEAM Biological Indicators deliver the industry’s fastest results — in just 20 minutes. No more waiting on it. No one waiting on you.
TELA BIO, INC. OviTex ® Reinforced Tissue Matrix
Address: 1 Great Valley Parkway, Suite 24 Malvern, PA 19355 Phone: 844-835-2246 Email: customerservice@telabio.com Website: www.telabio.com Product Description: OviTex RTM was purposefully designed with surgeon input to address the unmet clinical and fi nancial needs in soft tissue repair (e.g. hernia, plastic recon). Our solutions are comprised of layers of biologic material interwoven with polymer fi ber to create a unique embroidered construction offering a technology designed to surpass the performance of all existing soft tissue reconstruction devices.
Dirty Towels
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polyester to clean and disinfect the surfaces after each patient. At the end of the day, a facility will do a “complete clean” using disposable cotton or microfiber cloths, Ms. deKay said. The mops, too, could consist of cotton mop heads, or reusable and/or single-use microfiber.
Dr. Wiencek agreed that most hospitals still use laundered products, but more facilities are adding disposable products to their supply closet. The use of disposable cleaning products “has really exploded in the last five years,” he said.
Unfortunately, some evidence indicates that contamination of cleaning products is causing infections. More than a decade ago, researchers in Japan linked five cases of infection by spore-forming Bacillus cereus bacteria to reused towels that had been dried and steamed (J Hosp Infect 2008;69[4]:361-367). In 2015, six immunosuppressed patients developed infections from a sporeforming mold, Rhizopus microsporus, by inhaling and touching contaminated linens supplied by a designated laundry (Clin Infect Dis 2016;62[6]:714-721).
A 2015 literature review uncovered 12 outbreaks of infectious diseases associated with laundered health care textiles over the previous four decades (Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2015;36[9]:1073-1088). These reports might only scratch the surface, according to Ms. deKay, who said other cases of infections related to laundered cleaning products likely haven’t been documented.
However, switching back to all-cotton towels and mops is not a solution, Dr. Wiencek said. As a natural fiber, cotton can biodegrade; that’s good for the environment, but not for the sterile hospital room, where fibers break apart and cause lint.
Some facilities also may want to consider including more disposable products with their cleaning materials, Dr. Wiencek said. Cost could become an issue, as facilities would have to replace each mop pad after every use. But single-use pads are lighter and less expensive than reusable pads, which may not be effective after hundreds of washes. Plus “laundry isn’t free,” he added. “Cost is part of the story, but organizations have to look into their laundry contract to figure out how much they’re paying per use of the product.”
So how can facilities clean microfiber materials properly? The best advice, Ms. deKay said, is to follow the manufacturer’s instructions. Even if the instructions eschew bleach and high heat, the laundry industry’s bug-killers of choice, “instructions from the manufacturers have been validated to show they will get rid of organisms,” she said. Another tip: Separate microfiber cloths from mops because contamination can spread from one to the other.
For now, no additional technology exists that can replace the physical action of rubbing a surface with a chemical disinfectant, but some facilities may want to consider adjunct technologies, Ms. deKay said. Among those, ultraviolet radiation and hydrogen peroxide mist can kill microorganisms and add another layer of protection, she said. However, they can be expensive and can’t do the job alone. “You can’t just use that technology without doing the cleaning, which is why it’s so important that we’re getting the cleaning materials clean.” ■
Let’s Clean It Up
Contec, Inc., sells disposable microfibers and other textiles.
Value Over Volume
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motivator) instead of value (an intrinsic motivator) is having a significant negative impact on patients and the front-line clinicians who care for them. of care—lowering costs while improving patient outcomes. Basically, our prime motivation comes from autonomy, having control over what we do and how we do it; mastery, getting good at what we enjoy doing; and purpose, having a goal in life that is bigger than just serving ourselves.
By incentivizing physicians with money for seeing more patients in clinic and doing more procedures and operations, we guarantee poorer outcomes than if intrinsic motivators were used. —Bruce Ramshaw, MD
In his book “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us,” Daniel Pink presents a compelling argument based on decades of research about what motivates us as human beings and the differences between extrinsic motivators, like money for doing tasks, and intrinsic motivators, like improving the value
One interesting thing about this body of research is that extrinsic motivators work well to incentivize people to improve the output of simple mechanical tasks, like hammering a nail. But these same extrinsic motivators, when used to incentivize people performing complex work, as in health care, lead to poorer performance.
These structural changes to allow the transformation of health care from volume to value will require a deep knowledge of systems science tools, including the appropriate application of data science, learning to lead and work in small teams, and developing an evolved mindset to allow this transformation to happen. This is our challenge, and our opportunity to transform to an economically sustainable global health care system.
When will it happen? I don’t know. When will we have the courage to consciously reject the status quo and embrace the discomfort of change that unifies all parts of the system around value for the patient? Soon, I hope. ■
—Dr. Ramshaw is a surgeon and data scientist in Knoxville, Tenn., and a managing partner at CQ Insights. He is an editorial advisory board member of ORM. Visit his blog at: www.bruceramshaw.com/blog.
Protecting you
as you protect others
PneumoClear
Insufflation with a 0.01 μm ULPA layer 1 .
Breathe easier in the OR
• • OneOne tube set with ULPA filtration capable of filtering particles astube set with ULPA filtration capable of filtering particles as small as 0.01 small as 0.01 μ μ m m 1 . • • One One closed system designed to be compatible with conventional, closed system designed to be compatible with conventional, sealed trocars and minimize unnecessary venting sealed trocars and minimize unnecessary venting 2 .
