Presterilized Extremity Implants & Instruments:
Flexible, Efficient, Manageable and Traceable

It’s a subject more hospitals and surgeons now ponder: do presterilized, single-use instruments and implant-related devices have distinct advantages over those that are repeatedly sterilized?

While single-use equipment is nothing new in healthcare, what is changing are the kinds of instruments and related devices going the route of “one and done.”

Advancements in presterilized, tailored surgical kits that supply only the implants (such as screws and plates) and accompanying instruments necessary for specific procedures are gaining traction.

The typical drivers behind single-use, presterilized implants are also at work here:

Increasing financial constraints facing hospitals and insurers;
Reducing risk of surgical site infections (SSI); and
Greater operating room efficiencies.

But there are newer administrative, regulatory and logistical considerations that make the kits attractive to surgeons, hospitals and even to the companies that produce them.

Intraoperative Advantages

Seldom does a surgeon enter a procedure without a clear plan on how to treat his or her patient. But they do prefer to have the flexibility to choose the right device in those cases where, once the surgery is underway, they can fully assess the situation and change the direction of treatment if necessary.

In terms of using instrument trays that have been sterilized on-site at the hospital, doctors and nurses may be presented with multiple large trays with an array of plates, screws and various other tools. Too much choice crowds case carts and back tables, and can be overwhelming; plus, the potential for is a concern with wrapped trays.

By contrast, presterilized instrument kits are a quarter of the size of regular trays, and the surgical team uses only what is needed, cutting down on waste and minimizing contamination risk, while making the most of limited space in the O.R.

Sterile Processing Efficiencies

Think about a hospital’s instrument intake procedure and its multiple steps, check-in procedures and coordination. The 48 to 72 hours many hospitals require to receive instrument trays before a scheduled procedure may distract employees from other tasks and result in possible missteps, not to mention the back-end cleaning, restocking and storage required to care for this inventory.

Presterilized trays streamline processing on the front and back end.
They take less time to check in.
Drop-off can happen anytime, even the night before a procedure.
They can head directly to the core and the case cart, bypassing sterilization with zero worries about possible contamination and OR delays due to a hole in the drape, moisture in the tray or an overlooked contaminated instrument.
Eliminates the mislabeling of a wrapped tray in regard to its contents.
The surgical staff knows that everything for the procedure is there, ready to go via see-through packaging and precision content labeling. They don’t have to open a tray to know exactly what they have.
Interaction time between hospital sterile processing staff and the product rep is also simplified and reduced which saves time and maintains efficient workflows.
Relieves the financial impact to hospital for lost instruments.

Improved Inventory Access and Management

No organization wants equipment that is oversupplied and underutilized. Hospitals, particularly trauma hospitals, will always have general ortho plates and screws on hand.

The idea of keeping a small emergency inventory of presterilized plates and screws for unannounced and unplanned situations can benefit any hospital, particularly in light of recent natural and human-caused disasters. Several trays can be kept off to the side for quick access or for transport, as presterilized trays are easily moved without fear of contamination.

One area where presterilized trays are gaining popularity is with ambulatory surgery centers (ASC). ASCs find greater efficiencies with presterilized instruments. They allow more procedures to be performed with shorter turnover time, take less room to store, are easily received into inventory by staff and can be supplied at similar cost to traditional implants and instruments that require processing and sterilization.

Device Tracking with UDI and EHR

Ongoing federal requirements for making implantable devices adequately identifiable through the FDA’s Unique Device Identification (UDI) system, and then entered into a patient’s Electronic Health Record (EHR) and insurance claims, is made easier via presterilized implants and instrument kits.

With an abundance of screw and plates of various sizes (including some that are quite small), managing what specific implants go into a patient can make tracking and compliance difficult. Having all implants in sterile packaging with detailed labeling – including the required UDI’s marked by the manufacturer – simplifies compliance and eases the data entry burden on hospital staff.

Nursing Staff Efficiencies

One of the common concerns among health professionals is how greater data entry encroaches on their workload as healthcare clinicians. The regulatory environment around UDI compliance is complicated and a point of anxiety for some hospitals and some device makers alike. It is becoming clear that recordkeeping compliance will continue to divert more staff time away from caring for patients.

Consider that every tiny plate and screw must have its own UDI, and each device used in a case may be required to be entered into the EHR and insurance claims in the not so distant future. Now imagine eliminating that added administrative headache of looking through a device maker’s cross reference UDI catalog (with pages numbering upward of a thousand) to find the device and enter the number into the EHR. Prepackaged, single-use implants promise to introduce a bit more simplicity into a complex environment.

Considering a hospital’s need to reduce its financial burdens, minimize its infection risk and create more operational efficiencies, the switch to “one and done” makes for smart business and quality patient care, and offers benefits worth the effort.