Worth repeating

Healthcare Purchasing News, May, 2008

"Many carts available today were designed originally as garage tool boxes and converted for use in healthcare."

Mas Kang, senior vice president, marketing and business development, Artromick International

"Education amongst all disciplines--anesthesia personnel, peri-operative nurses, and surgeons--is needed. Policies, protocols, and procedures must be in place for preventing surgical burns. Energy sources are not the root cause. Oxygen-enriched atmosphere or flammable liquids that are not allowed to dry are two of the most common causes of OR fires."

Roger Odell, co-founder, chairman, and director of Encision Inc.

"These CMS reimbursement changes certainly provide an opportunity for Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) programs to once again show their enormous merit; however, the organization must be able to capture the true cost of HAIs so that the cost-benefit of prevention can be accurately measured. The Infection Prevention Specialist must also possess the skills necessary to make that case."

Suzanne M Pear, RN, Ph.D, CIC, healthcare epidemiologist, and associate director for infection prevention practices, scientific affairs and clinical education, Kimberly-Clark Health Care

"My ideal sterilization indicator would be a bio-electronic device which would communicate directly with independent controls to monitor, record and control the process. Such a device would provide real time response to the sterilization process and at the same time assess process lethality to a defined living organism. I believe this is doable if we understand the mechanism of kill for a given sterilization process."

Charles Hancock, medical device sterilization consultant, Charles O. Hancock Associates Inc.