"For scissors, where the shaft and handle are reusable and you screw
on the sharp tips to the end, it makes sense because those things dull
every case, so you get the durable shaft and handle and a fresh sharp
pair of scissors each time," says Dr. Renton.
Reposables stem from the rise of third-party reprocessing of single-
use instruments, which made people "rethink disposables and
reusables," says Dr. Curcillo. "We started reprocessing disposables
and for some instruments, that wasn't making sense," he says. That
led to some desiring a solution that combined the best parts of dispos-
ables and reusables. "That's where reposable instruments came to
light," says Dr. Curcillo. "They're the best of both worlds."
Thinking of adding reposables?
If you're considering reposables, the experts say there are a couple of
things to keep in mind. Ms. Dennis notes that because reposables are
limited-use — with manufacturers specifying the number of times they
can be reused before they must be disposed of — you have to have a
plan in place to track their uses.
It's not as complicated as it sounds. Dr. Curcillo says that he's seen
facilities track uses "every way" from marking small dots on the device
after each case to using specialized computer systems to record the
instrument use in each procedure. Ms. Dennis says a previous facility
she worked at had a computer system that scanned bar-coded instru-
ments to track the number of sterilizations, but notes for smaller cen-
ters, a manual count is "doable."
Involving your surgeons in the transition is also crucial, says Ms.
Dennis. Get them on board by selling the benefits for the surgeon, she
suggests — especially if you've been getting complaints of warped
electrodes or dull blades.
An even better thing to do, says Dr. Curcillo, is to gather all of the
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O U T PAT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | January 2015
