Device Maker Bets $525 Million on Recycling Medical Devices

Published On: December 1st, 2009

Reprocessing Stryker, a big medical device company, said today that it’s spending $525 million to buy a company called Ascent Healthcare Solutions that helps hospitals recycle medical devices designed for a single use.

The medical device industry has been wary of this practice in the past, questioning whether devices designed for a single use can be properly sterilized and whether they can hold up for multiple uses. So it’s interesting to see a big device company diving into the business of encouraging hospitals to re-use devices.

But the practice — which can save hospitals money even as it allows them to trumpet their sustainability efforts — has been growing recently, the WSJ reported last year.

“Reprocessing,” as the practice is known, involves sending devices to special facilities to be cleaned, sterilized and tested for reuse. Reprocessed devices range from pneumatic tourniquet cuffs to the blades surgeons use to saw through bones, according to the WSJ.

The FDA has oversight of reprocessing facilities, and this 2008 GAO report found that using reprocessed devices doesn’t increase risks for patients.

Here is the original:
Device Maker Bets $525 Million on Recycling Medical Devices

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