Reprocessed medical devices to play larger role

As the global economy continues to face challenges, the re-use market is flourishing. Re-processing in healthcare has historically been associated with commodity items, but a new market report forecasts that the US market for re-processed medical devices will reach a value of over $680 million by 2023.

The shift will be driven by increasingly budget-conscious facilities in the US. In 2014, US healthcare facilities are reported to have saved $300 million in supply costs as a result of reprocessing cardiovascular, laparoscopic, orthopedic/arthroscopic and gastrointestinal devices. Currently, over 70 percent of hospitals have agreements with third-party reprocessing companies.

Reprocessing is less common in smaller hospitals compared to larger ones. These facilities are typically not able to purchase in bulk, and therefore have less negotiating power when setting up contracts with original equipment manufacturers. As a result, many OEMs implement “no reprocessing” clauses in their contracts with smaller facilities.

This is, however, likely to change going forward as group purchasing organisations enable more smaller facilities to participate in reprocessing, and as OEMs become more accepting of the practice. This trend is evidenced by the fact that the two largest reprocessing companies—SterilMed and Stryker Sustainability Solutions—are owned by OEMs Ethicon and Stryker.

Manya Aggarwal has written a Medtech 360 report on this subject entitled US Markets for Reprocessed Devices 2015.