Every minute in the OR matters. When trays are delayed, instruments are missing, or wet sets hold up a case, the impact goes far beyond inconvenience.

Healthcare saves lives but it also leaves a heavy environmental footprint. Globally, the sector is responsible for approximately 4.4%–5.2% of greenhouse gas emissions and about 5% of global CO₂. If healthcare were a country, it would rank as the 13th largest emitter, and in the U.S., it accounts for roughly 8.5% of domestic greenhouse gases.

During Women’s History Month, I often find myself thinking about the women who came before us, the ones who opened doors quietly and persistently, often without much recognition.

As we prepare to attend AAMI next week, we see an important opportunity to strengthen shared understanding of how water treatment decisions influence safety, compliance, and sterilization outcomes in healthcare reprocessing. Case Medical, recognized as a U.S. EPA Safer Choice Partner of the Year, approaches chemical safety as an essential part of protecting both staff and patients.

Reprocessing medical devices is a complex, multistep workflow that includes cleaning, inspection and assembly, functional testing, disinfection when required, packaging and labeling, sterilization, transport, and storage.

Healthcare no longer operates in yesterday’s world. The Industrial Revolution has given way to the Digital Revolution, transforming how we diagnose, treat, and operate. Minimally invasive procedures now rely on sophisticated endoscopes and robotic instruments — devices that demand meticulous, step-by-step reprocessing and strict adherence to IFUs to ensure safety, performance, and longevity.

The last few blogs focused on the importance of standardization to decrease waste, remove unnecessary steps, improve turnover, and provide consistent workflow and increase efficiency. Currently, standardization and offsite processing are key buzz words for strategic plans to reduce handling and cut costs in SPD.

This week at the OR Leadership Summit, Case Medical connected with OR leaders to explore what it truly takes to achieve smoother operations, clearer communication, and reliable compliance. When communication breaks down between the operating room and sterile processing, the symptoms are easy to spot—late trays, incomplete sets, urgent phone calls, and last-minute workarounds.

Standardization can improve productivity, reduce costs, and create supply chain efficiency. Healthcare facilities are looking at the Total Cost of Ownership to reduce waste and have what is needed in stock, even during challenging times and supply chain shortages.