HOSPITALS REUSING EQUIPMENT : GOVERNMENT INVESTIGATES HAZARDS OF CUTTING COSTS.Byline: Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. The hospital resterilized the disposable surgical equipment to use again rather than throw away, unaware that pieces of a previous patient's tissue were stuck inside. From catheters threaded into patients' hearts to special blades for knee surgery, hospitals are recycling disposable medical devices. Federal regulators are investigating whether this effort to save money is endangering American lives. A preliminary Food and Drug Administration study uncovered dozens of reports of infection, chemical injuries or mechanical failures associated with reusing equipment designed to work just once. ``We don't think we have an epidemic'' of injuries, emphasized Dr. Susan Alpert, FDA's chief of device evaluation. But ``I don't mean to say there isn't a problem with refurbished devices.'' Medical device manufacturers, worried about liability but also about losing money from resterilization, are urging a crackdown. Companies have brought the FDA FDA abbr. Food and Drug Administration FDA, n.pr See Food and Drug Administration. FDA, n.pr the abbreviation for the Food and Drug Administration. photographs showing such tissue-tainted equipment and argued that people who resterilize are under no federal oversight to ensure they do a safe job. Proponents rebut To defeat, dispute, or remove the effect of the other side's facts or arguments in a particular case or controversy. When a defendant in a lawsuit proves that the plaintiff's allegations are not true, the defendant has thereby rebutted them. TO REBUT. that argument with the contention that reuse is safe and vital to bring down health-care costs. ``If a (cardiac) catheter sells for $300-$400, and we can reprocess re·proc·ess tr.v. re·proc·essed, re·proc·ess·ing, re·proc·ess·es To cause to undergo special or additional processing before reuse. Verb 1. it for less than $50, it doesn't take long to look at the finances,'' said Tom McGoldrick of Minneapolis-based MinnTech. The company sells equipment in Europe that has resterilized hundreds of balloon catheters balloon catheter n. A catheter with an inflatable balloon at its tip, used especially to expand a partially obstructed blood vessel or bodily passage and to measure blood pressure in a blood vessel. Also called balloon-tip catheter. used to clear clogged heart arteries. MinnTech won't sell its sterilizing machines domestically because clinical trials necessary for FDA approval cost too much. FDA scientists are meeting privately Monday with experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), agency of the U.S. Public Health Service since 1973, with headquarters in Atlanta; it was established in 1946 as the Communicable Disease Center. and the Health Care Financing Administration Health Care Financing Administration, n.pr department in the U.S. agency of Health and Human Services responsible for the oversight of the Medicaid and Medicare benefit programs, including guidelines, payment, and coverage policies. to compare injury reports and study whether the government should intervene. |
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