Having necessary medical devices, supplies and equipment are critical for hospitals and clinics to continue delivering high quality care to patients. The healthcare community relies on foreign companies, especially China, for medical equipment and supplies, even raw materials and spare parts to replenish our factories manufacturing products including medical devices right here in the USA...

Having necessary medical devices, supplies and equipment are critical for hospitals and clinics to continue delivering high quality care to patients. The healthcare community relies on foreign companies, especially China, for medical equipment and supplies, even raw materials and spare parts to replenish our factories manufacturing products including medical devices right here in the USA...

Let’s talk about rinsing, whether its dishes, your hair, salad fixings or medical devices. Doesn’t sound all that glamorous does it? Right up there with taking out the trash and many other chores that need to be done. That’s why they’re called chores after all. Truth is rinsing is really, really important, and yet is often overlooked or simply not done well enough because it takes time...

There are 54 billion bacterial cells on a single cubic centimeter of the average kitchen sponge. They are breeding grounds for all types of germs and bacteria. A common sponge’s spatial partitioning – the way it’s divided into different sectors of various sizes with a porous absorbent surface – caters to bacteria that prefer isolated environments and those that prefer to be around other organisms as well, making it the best of both worlds for microbial communities...

Over 30 years ago when plastic trays became the fashion for custom graphics trays, Case Medical introduced some too, only to discover that plastic sterilization trays simply make no sense. Even now they are promoted in IFUs and in subtle ways with sterilizer weight restrictions to drive business their way. ...

This weekend we learned of an assassination attempt on former President Trump. Some of us saw it on TV in real time. I do not agree with Trump’s politics, yet I am very sad for him and for all of us.

The news cycle has been dominated by headlines that are talking about AI and it’s potential to reshape the way we live and work. What many people don’t realize is that we have been developing and using machine learning tools at Case Medical long before it was popularized in the news cycle...

What’s going on? Off label use of germicides without rinsing, damaged and pitted medical devices, and stripped sterilization containers with white powder residue... I’ve had an opportunity to visit several health care facilities and hopefully provide some ideas for improvement of process and product. ...

This is too frequently a tactic used in politics, business, commerce, and in the health care industry to create doubt about a product or service, even a person’s best intentions. Last week, we discussed how science experiments utilize both positive and negative controls. We pointed out how process indicators used to monitor both cleaning and sterilization efficacy also serve to alert us to failures that then need to be investigated...

Residue is material that remains after cleaning, like grease left over on a frying pan. It can also be a liquid residue that’s left over at the bottom of a bottle, pot, or can, and even moisture remaining at the base of a sterilization container or tray after sterilization. When it comes to removal of moisture in a container or sterilized tray this is easy to fix...