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Hospitals recycling medical devices without telling patients
Posted by: Michael A. Kelly
March 24, 2008
Topic: Kaiser Malpractice
Recycling of medical devices that are explicitly "single use" is on the rise. The Wall Street Journal reports that Kaiser Permanente's recycling of medical devices makes it one of the largest users of recycled medical devices. The leading trade group on the issue, the Association of Medical Device Reprocessors (AMDR), represents companies that reprocess devices. According to the Journal article, AMDR members recycle products made from hard metals or polymers and plastics, and reuse them between two and five times.
Dan Vukelich, president of the Association, was quoted as saying reprocessed devices can be safer in some cases because each must be inspected before reuse, while original manufacturers test new devices only in batches. His organization also alleges that device makers label many products as single-use merely to be able to sell more new devices to hospitals. But the bigger question is, shouldn't patients be told?
AMDR, the reprocessing group, is fighting efforts to require that patients go through formal informed-consent processes. Despite the fact informed consent is a bedrock patient right, the AMDR's position is that informed consent is unnecessary when it comes to reused medical devices.
Kaiser Permanente started reprocessing single-use devices more than a decade ago. According to Kaiser spokesman Dean Edwards, vice president and chief procurement officer, Kaiser shaved about $3.5 million from its device costs in 2007 thanks to device reuse.
Kaiser patients may want to ask their doctor whether the saw blade, catheter, stent, syringe, or other single-use device used in their procedure have already been used once or twice on another patient. If such a reused product has caused injury to you or a loved one, the lawyers at Walkup can help.
