The Device Reprocessing Battle Continues, Now with Clever Acronyms

Patient Groups United Against Reprocessing Dangers wins the Medgadget Acronym of the Month for September, for not having to resort to picking sTRange LeTTers to construct PatientGUARD. All frivolities aside, PatientGUARD is heading for the state legislature in New Jersey…

[PatientGUARD] plans within the next month to call for legislation that would restrict the practice in New Jersey.
Those restrictions would include requiring written patient consent prior to using a reprocessed single-use device, giving physicians the chance to reject using them, requiring detailed record-keeping when the devices are used and shifting liability for any problems from the original manufacturers to the companies that reprocess the devices for hospitals.
The coalition, organized by the HealthCare Institute of New Jersey, joins a simmering debate in the medical community over the safety of reusing surgical blades, diagnostic catheters and other medical devices.

Those requirements seem reasonable (and don’t necessarily prohibit reprocessing), but of course we see predictable rhetoric from both sides of the argument…

Since 2004, when FDA began requiring reports of patient complications or device malfunctions to note whether a medical device had been reprocessed, millions of devices have been reprocessed without any problems, according to the Association of Medical Device Reprocessors. The association said thousands of problems with new devices have been reported in that time.
However, the HealthCare Institute of New Jersey, which represents several companies that make medical devices, alleges FDA oversight is inadequate. The institute says that reusing devices after they have been cleaned and sterilized puts patients at risk for infection or injury.

Shocking. Interest groups continue to argue the point they were created to support. As if under some odd circumstances the Assoc. of Medical Device Reprocessors is going to decide single use devices shouldn’t be reprocessed, or that medical device manufacturesr relying on a razors-and-razorblades business model to stay afloat would advocate their own destruction.
More from Linda Johnson’s AP article