Recycling of disposable medical equipment, even though labeling allows just a single use, has become popular as a way to cut costs. Obviously, if an item intended for single use is to be reused at all, patient safety must first be assured through implementation of appropriate controls.

Of greater danger to patients and relatively common, though NEVER sanctioned, is the use of a single disposable syringe for flushing IV catheters in sequential patients. This very practice is occurring, perhaps more commonly than imagined.

An investigation carried out post-incidence of Plasmodium falciparum malaria which included use of anonymous questionnaires, indicated that 10% of the nurses treating infected patients used a single disposable syringe for more than one heparin lock, and 50 % of the nurses filled syringes with enough drug for three to ten patients’ locks!

SAFE PRACTICE RECOMMENDATION: Due to lack of knowledge of possible consequences, some practitioners may take short cuts or use poor technique to prepare syringes and flush IV catheters when caring for multiple patients. Where multiple dose vials of flush solution are used, managers must be assured that all personnel (including physicians, nurses and technicians who must access IV lines) know proper techniques to prepare syringes and flush IV catheters and understand the extreme danger presented when procedures designed for safety fall short. In addition, health care personnel should be monitored to assure that they understand necessary infection control measures. Managers must also monitor supplies used in known infected patients to assure that they are isolated for use only in that patient. Only rigid adherence to such procedures can assure patient safety.

[Ref: Institute for Safe Medication Paractices]

The business of keeping people healthy has been one of the only parts of the $10 trillion American economy that has remained healthy, and many economists now say that the sprawling health care industry may be the only driver of growth in the near term. Even when consumer spending and corporate investment pick up, the health care sector is likely to expand faster than most industries in the years ahead.

The $1.3 trillion health care industry — including pharmaceutical companies, medical equipment makers, hospitals, nursing homes, assisted-living centers and insurers — has boomed before, as far back as the 19th century. But the current expansion comes after a decade in which health care’s share of the economy remained flat, largely because insurance companies and the government restrained spending. Now, widespread demand for more flexible health programs, the aging of the population and a spate of hospital mergers are pushing up both costs and investments in health care.

By 2010, health care is expected to account for 16 percent of the nation’s economic output, up from 13 percent today and 4 percent 50 years ago, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services. In 2040, economists say the sector could exceed 20 percent, and David M. Cutler, a researcher at Harvard, has argued that even 30 percent would not be unlikely.